Original subtitles

Previously on Billions...

Mr. Andolov,

My first act as attorney general

was to freeze your funds in the United States.

My second act is inviting you to leave our sunny shores.

I, of course, picked up the scent of the Axelrod

behind this.

Charles Rhodes, Jr. Is hereby removed

as attorney general of the state of New York.

Everywhere he goes, we are watching.

It's hard to march toward the presidency

when you're always looking over your shoulder.

The beginnings of a plan.

Secrecy and deception.

I'm starting to get misty.

Jesus. You like shaking people up.

Like it? I don't know.

It just happens.

I love that you're loyal

until I help get you elected to Congress.

You've accumulated so much,

you think laws don't apply to you?

Who appointed you the keeper of these cosmic rules

in the first place?

The fucking arrogance!

I've always wanted

to see Vestmannaeyjar in the dark.

Best way for a newly installed U.S. Attorney not to be tracked.

And for an international fugitive not to be extradited.

Something for everyone.

Lay it out for me.

I've been told I needed to see you.

When Wendy wants something, she's very persuasive.

That's why I called her.

I need safe passage to America.

- For you? - No, not for me.

I'll need a name, Robert.

Yeah, Charles, I'm working up to it.

Is that because I'm going to hate it?

Well, you ain't gonna love it.

Vasily Melnikov, stabbed.

Vladislav Avayev, shot.

Sergey Protosenya, hanged.

Alexander Tyulyakov, also hanged.

And the list goes on.

All friends and colleagues of mine. All dead.

My condolences.

Dangerous time to be an oligarch.

Yet when you called and asked,

even though we had agreed

you would stay out of my part of the world,

I helped you anyway.

Helped me?

No, we both worked together

to help the man in the olive drab t-shirt.

Because both he and his country needed it.

Yours, too.

Not how the Kremlin sees it.

That's how you see it.

You know, it's no good being a citizen, even a rich one,

from a country that's isolated, bled dry.

Well, like how I felt when you chased me

out of the United States.

That's semi-ancient history.

Now you have freedom here in Europe. We both do.

To walk the streets. To wet our beaks.

Thanks to the arms that I financed,

and you sourced.

And you think this wipes our ledger clean?

Did I forget to send you a fucking fruit basket?

A few kumquats is not going to change anything.

But our ledger is not clean.

It is like a windshield that was tended to

by your...

squeegee men that thrived under your Mayor Dinkins.

All the showy effort and noise,

and still, windshield covered in grime and dirt.

Until I am rehabilitated in the United States,

we are not square.

I'm not even rehabilitated there.

And I'm not a foreign national. You are.

And I am the one defying my government

during a purge that makes Joe Stalin

look like Joan fucking Baez.

If my loyalty is even questioned

by the leaders of my country...

I get it. You go on the dead oligarch list.

So now...

to what I need.

And what you will deliver on a platter.

I need to return to America.

On a deeply personal mission.

You do know that all your funds are frozen?

Down to the last kopek.

Plus, you're on a sanctions list.

No matter what the mission,

I suggest you conduct it somewhere else.

No, Axe.

You will arrange it so I can walk back in,

do my business freely,

and in return, I will grant something to you.

Could be tickets to the Bolshoi,

could be to allow you

to keep walking around here,

breathing freely.

Threats? Really?

What in my history makes you think I respond well to threats?

What in my history makes you think

it's merely a threat?

Grigor Andolov.

It's within your authority,

within your ability to figure it out anyway.

To give an exiled criminal a visa?

So he can, what,

muscle in on the Brighton Beach heroin trade?

Fuck with our next election?

His wife's still in New York.

She's suing for divorce on grounds of abandonment.

Well, maybe he can countersue for irony.

And if he can't even show up...

she gets a default judgment worth billions.

Now we're talking your love language.

This is important to me.

Important to you.

To the man who defied me

on that heliport not so long ago?

I would consider it a personal favor.

When Ali was broke, could no longer fight,

couldn't even pick up his dinner tab,

Smoking Joe hauled him into his limo,

counted out a thousand bucks, cash.

Sure, the old combatants code.

But based on the shiny new G800,

plenty of purses rolling your way.

Yeah, I'm flush.

So I'll make you an offer.

You get Grigor to the U.S.,

I'll owe you a debt.

You do remember when I kicked him out of there, that, too,

was a favor to you?

Yeah, it's all more perplexing

than the betrayal of Johnny Caspar.

But I need it done.

So if you do it,

I promise that I will come through for you when you ask.

And I think you know, when I make a promise,

I don't come up short.

Well, I'll say it.

We aren't breaking through.

Yet you remain undefined

beyond rich, smart, nice guy.

The party primaries are sucking up all the media attention.

Do I have to fly the National damn Guard

every time I want some political ink?

Can you?

I'm not laughing.

What else has had that type of impact,

historically, for an outsider candidate?

The only independent to ever really get traction was...

Yes. Perot.

I saw it as a kid.

I buy a... a half hour on every major network.

- Live speech. - It'll play like you're

making an acceptance speech at your own national convention.

Yeah, we call that the primetime roadblock.

No way around us, we'll reframe the entire race.

How do you win outside the system?

You run as the antidote to the system.

The theme will be taking inventory,

looking inside ourselves

to see how we let things get this bad.

Yes. Asking the hard, honest questions

no politician dares ask...

to remake ourselves in order to remake the country.

Before it's too late.

The full Lincoln. Do it the right way,

the other candidates will look like

lawn jockeys at the Belmont Stakes.

Tell the story...

of how you ask your people

how you can do better,

be better, as you will also ask the country.

I like that.

Then you have to really do it.

Solicit honest feedback from your employees.

Use it as fuel for the speech.

Use it as an example.

Yeah, great.

I'll run focus groups with your people to get that info.

Boil it down to a lean PowerPoint to present to you.

I'm not sure inserting a layer

between Mike and his guys is the way to success.

Happens to be the only way

the political research process works.

Filters, funnels, all of it.

No, no, no. I want the full fire hose.

That's the point. As Wendy says.

Okay, how about this?

I run the process with Mike in the room.

We make it authentic, substantial.

Full fat, full flavor.

So Mike can eat it up and then spit it out.

We'd spend all week Heimliching the guy.

This has to be a battle cry.

No, no, no time for self-recrimination or anything

that blunts the tip of the sword.

Like actual self-knowledge?

I have to run this process.

So you can baby-proof the credenza.

So I can keep out the noise. Same process I used

to elect a third of the Senate.

The same guys that are so out of touch,

Mike had to step in and run 'em out of town?

I don't need my candidate picking pepper out of fly shit

- on the eve of a major speech. - I've heard enough.

Brad, you can run the process with me in the room.

Wendy'll be there, too. Team of rivals.

Make the buy, set the meeting.

We are gonna do something extremely hard.

Um, great?

Yeah, everyone's gonna be angry about it.

It'll cause enormous tension with Washington,

with Albany, too.

Sounds horrible. What's it entail?

Getting a previously ejected oligarch

back into the country.

A Russian oligarch?

One with a big red target on his back.

From DOJ, from DHS, from Interpol, too.

Grigor Andolov.

And you want to do this now,

during the second coming of the Red Menace.

Like I said, extremely hard.

If it's doable at all.

Why would you even consider it?

As a favor to Bobby Axelrod.

Those words just tumbled out of your mouth

like a meth addict's teeth...

and just as fucked up.

How do you figure you'll pull this off?

I have to talk to a special advisor.

Big man in certain circles.

Bunky Stevens is going to be a father

with his third wife, Candy.

Neat trick, considering he died

a few months back.

Post-mortem jizz retrieval, you dig?

Not sure I do.

Well, you get the stiff on the table,

even though he ain't so stiff no more.

Get my drift?

And then you drain those berries.

You do it soon enough, you end up with viable swimmers,

Jizz. Stuff of life.

Stuff of fraud.

There's a new fertility start-up out there doing this.

Candy is just beefing up her claim on the estate.

The first and second wives will get nothing...

now that there's going to be an heir.

No respect for the starter wives in our culture,

chicks who break the seal.

In Thailand, even the minor wives

get one hell of a birthday bunfight.

You're going to want to think global

but act local on this one.

It's your worst nightmare, isn't it?

A paternity suit that can't be settled out of court.

It's a question of basic fairness, don't you see?

Never your concern.

And I don't recall you thinking much of

Bunky or his wives, either.

So the fact that you're suddenly the guardian

of the product of his vas deferens,

I know there's more to the story.

That mean that you're not gonna

club this company into oblivion

and seize the embryos that result from this unholy process?

It means I'll look into it,

and decide what I'll do as usual.

Bye, Dad.

Hey, sugar, you be getting that shit I've been sending you?

I have. And I thank you.

It's,

I guess it's what you'd call PEDs,

but in lozenge form.

So, put it under your tongue.

It hits the bloodstream instantly.

Like a ball-peen fucking hammer.

Turns any man into a world-class sheet-athlete.

Wonderful.

And I'm left wondering why

none of this sublingual supreme has been sent my way.

For the simple reason it may kill you, big papa,

like Dirty Harry in '71.

He goes into this speech confident,

he comes out sailing.

Zooming up the fucking polls.

And we're just supposed to stand there clapping

like extras in a Riefenstahl film.

With Bradford running point,

the feedbacks gonna be jet fuel.

There is a potential equal time issue.

It's been dealt with.

I spread some more ad dollars around

and if any candidate tries to buy equal time

within a week of Prince, they won't find any left for sale.

Nicely solved.

Power of the motherfucking purse.

All over but the shouting.

She's too effective. We need her out of here.

Isn't she supposed to be running for Congress,

instead of doing henchman duty for Prince?

She needs to understand the hazards of staying.

In my experience, rich, powerful men

think they want to hear the unvarnished truth

but don't actually want to hear it.

Yeah, is this really just a loyalty test?

If it is, let's pass it, get back to our desks.

It's earning season, people.

I don't know, best just call it the way you see it.

You mean as long as it's what he wants to hear?

I mean, tell him what he wants to hear

no matter how you see it.

What if that comes across as inauthentic?

Does your comp come across as inauthentic?

Guys, easy peasy.

Like seeing your dorm-mate in an off-off-Broadway play.

You say something vague, adjective free,

"That was all you up there."

And then let the ego fill in the blanks.

I'm calling bullshit on this whole exercise,

and I sure as fuck won't suck up.

Mike, you are like a combination of Benjamin Graham

and fucking Hal from Space Odyssey,

everywhere, all at once,

processing, prodding me to make better trades.

Why is there anything you've been wanting to say to Mike,

but thought you couldn't?

I don't deserve you.

The guilt, it's crushing me.

That's something I think we should work on.

And the challenges trading with him, day to day?

I have this recurring dream in which you make bank.

I'm talking 10X

while doing an ungodly amount of push ups.

But is it really a dream?

I'm just saying it ain't easy.

When you set a standard that's through the freaking roof.

Mike, this is you and me.

Criticism? Who are we kidding?

Would you... Would you like to...?

- Jesus. - Let's move on.

Yep.

I love that you're ditching your race for Congress.

- I am? - As much as we need you there,

we need you here.

Besides, not enough hand sanitizer in the world

to make me do that job.

You should go long Purell, I'm not ditching a thing.

But you're still here?

My filing deadline's months away.

But we're days away from Prince's campaign

becoming a black hole.

Everything in its vicinity sucked right in.

You'll just be part of the fabric of the thing,

unable to assert yourself as anything other than

"Prince's fill-in-the-blank".

All because he's about to throw down a gauntlet?

More of a grenade.

At the parties you'll need to nominate you.

So I just establish a little distance when I leave is all.

With your family dough?

With the whitest collar background

of anyone at the firm?

Ask Chang and Eng.

Not a lot of distance when you're joined at the hip.

Must feel different to walk this hall

as an impresario.

No longer the guy in the squared circle.

Still feel every bump.

Whether you're giving 'em whether you're taking 'em,

whether you're scripting 'em.

I've always wondered if I could do it.

Fall down for a living.

You don't have that far to fall.

Look, you could do it.

When this crowd comes alive,

you'd come alive.

There is nothing else...

- like this. - Yeah.

Well, no one knows the game like you do, Hunter.

And that's why I need your advice.

You got a game that needs to be played?

Yes, exactly.

I need to turn one guy heel,

and another guy babyface. In one move.

Oof.

Double turn. Tough to pull off.

But when it's done right,

one of my personal favorites.

How do I pull it off?

You need to let the heel come in

and get the heat from the crowd.

Then your babyface comes and gets the pop.

The heat and the pop?

Yeah.

Tell me more about these guys. What do you got on 'em?

Well, they both think they're babyfaces.

That's for damn sure. But neither one of them is.

Every sitting senator would give their gavel arm

for a survey result like this.

Did any of it feel real to you?

I can read between the lines.

I picked up that I can be intimidating.

I'll work on that.

This is how Vietnams happen.

How politicians lose touch with reality.

Hard questions stop being asked

and they believe their own hype.

So you want us to go back around

and troll for negative feedback?

So that's written down somewhere,

so it fucks with Mike's head?

I wouldn't frame it like that.

But if he's going to ask the rest of us,

the country, to take inventory,

then he should really fucking do it.

Otherwise, he's as fake

as the politicians he's running against,

and the voters are going to smell it on him

and send him packing.

She's right.

You want a samurai sword and Hattori Hanz blade?

Those only come from the hottest flames.

Find me a master swordsmith without some serious burns.

He's letting you

run a second round of honesty sessions?

Without Prince in the room this time.

No Luke either.

I'm not comfortable with this.

We don't know where actual honesty will lead.

Fuck yeah, we do.

The greatest televised meltdown

since Howard Beale.

Prince's narcissism is a mile-wide

and a micron thick.

Watch the movie. Beale stays on air,

Schumacher gets kicked to the curb.

I want to keep having a firm to run.

Watch it to the end.

Beale gets his brains blown out.

Schumacher gets to schtup a young,

luscious-as-a-plum Faye Dunaway.

Taylor isn't wrong.

This could implode MPC,

as well as the campaign and all of our places in it.

I wanna slam Prince's ego with a battering ram.

No telling where the fragments will land.

If it hurts business.

If it blows us up, too...

price we gotta pay.

One question, related to the files we discussed

a few weeks back.

Yep.

If I stay on board here, am I killing

my chances with the mainstream party?

Can't expect either party to bear hug you

after he shoots 'em in the vitals.

What if I wall myself off from the campaign?

Restrict myself to firm business until I leave?

The firm is the campaign.

No wall to be built

unless you wanna drywall your own office door.

I was hoping we could, I don't know...

think outside the box.

Not so easy when you're in one.

Got the case for ya.

Commodities fraud.

Market manipulation in the oil industry.

That'll do.

Sure you want to go down this road?

We list Andolov as an expert witness,

then asked DOJ and DHS

to parole him into the country.

Get ready for some hairpin turns.

The guy's a sanctioned oligarch who you chased out.

I mean, there's impossible,

then there's climbing the Dawn Wall

with a pair of Havaianas and a bag of chalk.

I think I can sell it.

I also learned that Grigor's wife is not alone

in her divorce action... She's got a backer,

a hedge fund, he's bankrolling her,

no doubt for a big piece of the settlement.

- Who? - Our very own Todd Krakow.

And knowing him, that's not the only reason

he's lurking around.

Because what we need here

are some more obstacles.

Damn the torpedoes, file the parole request.

I've got something else for you.

Can it wait till morning?

You're going to want to see this today.

Dad.

Your pal Bunky signed a consent form.

Well, hold the fucking roll. If your boy signed off on it,

how come he didn't get the missus

to do the extraction pre-mortem?

I mean, that's lots more fun.

You know what I'm sayin', baby girl?

He didn't want to raise a kid.

He wanted a posthumous tot to live on after him.

That's like that fucking movie about the octopus.

She popped some eggs from her cooch,

and then she slides into an undersea death spiral.

This isn't about Bunky at all. What is it?

Okay, fine.

I'll tell you.

It's Roxanne and Willow.

I saw them praying...

to Jesus.

When we agreed we wouldn't raise Willow

with religion at all.

Beware, Sonny Boy, legacy is a lie!

There is no control in the hereafter.

Shit. It's true.

You know, once they get the Jesus fever,

it's rarely treatable.

Just like the fucking Orthodox in my tribe.

Yeah, a Rhoades spouting the Lord's Prayer,

I know what a disaster that is for you.

You need to talk to Roxanne.

Just rein it in before it takes root.

Not in a talking mood.

I'm drawing up my demands

for the upbringing of my progeny.

Schooling, vacations, earthly pursuits.

This... This God shit?

Strictly off the list.

Because ultimatums work so well in a marriage?

If she won't heed mine, then we are headed for divorce.

And I'm going for custody.

I knew you'd come. I've been expecting you.

I saw in the papers you're back in your old job.

Indeed.

But I figured you'd make an appointment.

I'm not actually here for that.

It's about my father.

Well. Usually is.

No, I need some information.

About the nature of control.

Dominance.

Why some seem unable to give it up.

You trying to save yourself?

No. Not this time, no.

My dad needs some peace.

But his daughter...

she needs to be spared the kind of upbringing I had.

That relentless, controlling instinct which...

Which led you here in the first place.

Which led me to mirror him in 98% of my interactions.

And then to have to completely repudiate it here.

Sometimes there's a certain comfort

in jumping at others' command.

Control is all an illusion anyway.

Tell that to the guy

in the business end of the truncheon.

But if you're paying someone to wield it,

who's really in control?

End of the day, client gets the meal.

I just plate the food.

You think my dad is fooling himself?

Raging against his own impotence, maybe.

His mortality.

Control is often an expression of fear.

People who truly believe they're in control?

More likely to escalate their actions till they fail.

Leads to poor decision making.

Magical thinking.

Problem is...

telling a controller not to doesn't work.

I've noticed.

Your hope lies in convincing him

that his true power is best displayed

in not having to use it.

I promised them anonymity.

Then work to get them past their instinct for flattery,

for base self-interest.

I'm ready for the unplugged version.

"Self-satisfied." "Loves himself."

"Mother Teresa of Wall Street."

"Loves the smell of his own farts,

like the "Smug Alert" episode of South Park"?

- Never saw that one. - I have.

It's a top-tier episode. Heh. Who said that?

You can't think I'm gonna name names.

I just... I want to do some relationship repair.

Of course, no.

"Entitled, thinks he can buy us off with private planes.

I mean, I'll take the flights, but fuck that."

"Forces you to come to his party and act like you like it

while he slakes his appetite..."

Stop right there.

There's no reason for Mike

to be subject to the petty staff jealousies

and... and character sniping.

I mean, we all sat through your round.

I didn't take you for the squeamish type.

And this is when we bring it back around,

put it in a context?

Here's the context. You have to decide

what taking inventory actually means.

Whether you can push through the friction

as commander in chief, a lot fucking worse

than what you heard just now.

And do what must be done.

What only you can do for the country.

Even if it turns you into a dartboard.

I think you can, or I'd be lying to your face

like everyone else on that floor instead of, you know...

giving you what you asked for.

That'll be all.

These are all A-list attorneys.

Serious political chops, too.

You think we need more firepower?

No.

But I don't want to leave without replacing myself.

But it's time. Past time.

The speech is tomorrow.

I need to get with the party that can nominate me.

Terms of my hire, remember?

What do you want?

What will it take

to stick around longer till we can right the ship?

If I stay and help you right it,

it'll be pretty hard to get off it.

If your departure is made public,

this of all weeks...

Maybe we all go quiet on this

until the hand-off's complete.

It has to be public. It has to be now.

A couple of days at the most.

I need to establish a little distance to him.

Scrub your name off mine while I still can.

It's just politics, Mike.

I hope you understand.

Don't walk away from Prince Capital

or Prince himself.

I don't quit now,

both parties will freeze me out.

Nothing on the plus side of the ledger

competes with that.

"Love To Love You, Baby."

Come again?

It's the song that took dance music from the club floor

to the top of the charts.

Broke me as a music manager.

Made Donna Summer into the queen of a whole new genre.

You said it ended badly.

Always does.

But before that, she was my double platinum ticket.

No bigger pop star in the '70s.

No Black woman, beside Diana with her cultural power,

her crossover cachet.

And she knew it.

Came to me to cut my percentage.

Once, then again and again.

Natural progression with most stars.

But I hung in, choked down every indignity.

And do you know why?

Because everyone answered my call.

Just hoping it'd be about Donna.

It would've been worth it to do the job for free

for that alone.

No indignities at Prince Capital.

But unlike Donna, the name is about to be

a liability for me.

You don't want to be frozen out.

I get it.

But how cold are you going to feel in the wilderness?

In the dead of winter? When your calls go unanswered?

Surprise, surprise. We've got a Russia problem.

Apparently, it's going around.

Chuck. My friends in DC

tell me you're trying to bring Grigor Andolov

in as some bullshit witness.

Are you fucking crazy?

How's the country better off with that droog in it?

Let's reframe that.

How many tens of millions of dollars do you stand to lose

if he can contest his divorce action?

You should know better than to mock the crime

of spousal abandonment.

Or the stigma and isolation?

The inability to plan one's future?

A woman's emotions torn fucking asunder.

You're not just bankrolling her.

You're sleeping with her.

Okay, look...

It started off all business,

but Oksana is a very soulful woman.

She's been through a lot.

The heart wants what the heart wants.

So does the DOJ, and we need the guy here.

Then I may need to align with forces

whose interests run counter to yours.

In a big fucking way.

And I never do my enemies minor boo-boos, Chuck.

Keep up that watered-down Machiavelli shit with me,

the feds will be a far more pressing problem

than some foreign actor.

You better not mess with that divorce proceeding.

That one's all yours.

He's not the only grouser.

I just heard from DeGiulio.

He got the request to parole Grigor back into the States?

Wants to discuss it in person.

Along with your old pals Governor Sweeney

and Attorney General Mahar.

The three of them together.

When they come at you as a three man,

think chair shot, not rubber stamp.

My ink pad's at the ready.

Chuck, is it really worth choosing Grigor over Krakow

and not one, but two levels of government?

To please this guy of all people.

I mean, what's he ever done for you...

Except wear you out and haunt your days?

No, this is the vaunted Bobby Axelrod,

mover of markets,

puller of levers.

And he needed me.

Called me. Had to ask me for a personal favor.

Offered to be in my debt.

Sure, I wanted to say no, almost did. But...

Well, that's too rare and valuable

a commodity these days.

Especially from one who knows what it means.

Well, that is more old school than Sammy Davis Jr.

Tapping with the Will Mastin Trio.

I lead from the front.

I do everything I ask of those under my command

and not from a goddamn swivel chair.

The difference between you and General Patton?

He didn't ask for his employee's criticism.

He just slapped them in the face.

Criticism informs, elucidates.

This was insubordination.

Maybe Luke was right... Maybe you weren't ready

for the full fire hose.

My own people think that they can lie to me,

mock me.

Plus, Sacker's leaving,

planning on "distancing herself"?

We were cruising along

at flank speed before all this.

The presidential.

When did I become Lex Luthor?

Anytime somebody runs for office,

they either become Superman or that other thing.

I didn't change.

Everybody looks at you through different eyes now,

but that doesn't matter. What matters is this:

There's nothing wrong with deciding you want

the unvarnished, unquestioned love.

In fact, that may be the most healthy choice.

Sometimes quitting isn't capitulation.

Sometimes it shows grit and wisdom.

Scooter called you?

He told me what happened.

I know this is where you'd go.

Well, it used to actually work.

Now I feel the chill in this room, too.

Well, too warm and you slip on the court.

I used to feel the warmth in every room I entered.

Especially Michael Prince Capital.

Now it just seems like a lie.

Those rooms were warm because you paid them.

I told myself I didn't care.

But I thought the warmth was real. Or I wanted to.

Then let's talk court conditions.

I was at Indiana A&M, too.

My teammates loved me there.

If we're really taking inventory,

some of them hated your guts.

Until they got to know me, maybe.

No.

Until you lead them to some wins.

Then they loved you.

I just had to show them I was all about the team.

The team was all about you. Always.

You always had the ball.

You always made your shots or dished it.

They had to learn that the path to glory

ran through you.

So I shouldn't worry about seeking real love?

I'm saying, the way to get it is to be a winner.

That's as real as it fucking gets.

Is that cold or superficial or hollow?

Well, that's the world we're living in.

And it's the one you say you want to lead.

And he's fucking late.

Quite the assemblage for a pro forma parole request.

Pro fucking forma? Coddling a Russian criminal

on the dawn of a second Cold War.

Last I saw you, Governor, you were forcing me from office

in a bloodless coup.

I'd say cold wars are your métier.

Mr. Andolov has agreed

to cooperate in a critical case.

His safe passage will be strictly limited...

To rat-fucking me and my biggest donor, Todd Krakow.

Chuck, my office, your old office,

you personally ran Grigor out of this country.

Surely, whatever grudge you hold against the governor...

Me? I'm all about moving forward.

This has to stop at the water's edge.

Let this fucker in and we're going to look ridiculous.

Like patsies. Like...

Putin's got pee tapes on the lot of us.

I know better than to try to stop you, Chuck.

You will find a way over,

you will find a way through.

Used to be my modus, sure.

I am appealing to you, though.

Don't alienate us.

And don't burn Todd Krakow

and 50 other political powerhouses

in your first months back at Southern.

Don't make them your last.

I used to believe in zero-sum...

in choosing a side, generally my own,

and alienating all others.

But this go-around, I see that we can all be winners,

all be friends.

Why draw lines in the sand

when we can build a castle?

Castles made of sand?

You know, it's happened, Chuck. You've lost your fucking mind.

Maybe I just found it, Bob.

Chuck, in a known language, please.

I'm talking about telling our own story.

A story in which we work the emotional levers

to all get what we actually want.

And how exactly do we reach this promised land?

My special advisor on this will answer all your questions.

You might say he does it for a living.

Time to play the game

So, you found a good lawyer yet?

Excuse me?

Your custody case.

I know your prenup's a fortress of steel,

and that you're ready to crush.

I'm short-listing litigators

and still building out my list of demands.

Go ahead, son.

I've known you long enough to know

when you've got a point to make.

Well...

probably not one that's welcome here, so...

Out with it.

No, it's just that I've noticed that power is the ability

to influence others,

not dictate to them.

True power is not having to use it.

Are you gonna flash your history chops now

and hold forth on how the great emperors

and cons were such because they showed mercy?

I'm not.

We both know I'm talking about your daughter.

That's right.

Now, she ought not be beholden

to some made-up deity.

When you'd rather have her be beholden to you.

Your way.

You'll have her obedience

and you'll have moments of her affection...

She's human, after all.

And won't be able to escape her inclination to love you,

but she'll try.

Boy, how she'll try,

if you run power games on her and her mother.

Domination...

is an all-or-nothing proposition.

It does not work if you carve out exemptions.

What is it that you're suggesting?

Go on dominating everyone else in your life.

Put your stamp on things and mark your turf.

Yes, and go ahead and show her that,

when she's old enough to apprehend it.

But when it comes to her now...

give her a sense of stability...

and self worth.

Because that's where true power comes from.

Ease up.

As a means of achieving the same result.

Actually, control them more by seeming to cede it.

Wouldn't have worked with you.

Who's to say

I may have needed the firm hand,

but neither of these women are me.

That's for damn sure.

It could spare you a custody fight.

You might even get what's on that list of yours,

and they'll never know

they played right into what you wanted.

I like this plan.

Some sense must have been

whipped into you after all.

That firm hand. Yep.

Okay, sonny...

I will try it your way.

Good.

Continental style in this house,

left hand, tines downward.

This look like Ruby fucking Tuesday to you?

Speech of his life.

I cannot believe he missed the run-through.

Mike doesn't need run-throughs.

He's Africa/Brass-era Coltrane.

- He finds it as he goes. - Can you find it if it went?

We're live on eight channels in five minutes

and he's not even here.

There he is.

Who's ready to turn this upside down?

Didn't need a run-through.

Any more than Jay-Z needs to write down his lyrics.

Just roll tape and let me go.

Thank you.

For not keeping me safe.

In my bubble.

The idea that I would reassess my campaign,

quit, because of a few grumblers in the company...

Well, I needed to hear that.

I was a professional boot in the ass.

Finally saw what you were doing.

The destiny, it's in me.

I knew you'd put yourself back together.

Glad you did.

Ready?

I put him back together

after you kicked the pieces across the floor.

I thought you were out the door.

I'd like to stay at MPC until my filing deadline.

Then run as an independent on Mike's ticket.

Stay close to the resources, the juice.

If you're sure, I can get you on a cutaway shot.

I know it's a risk taking on the party machinery.

I'm not just going to be some schmo out in the wilderness...

in a run for Congress.

We're live.

In five, four, three...

I'm Mike Prince.

If you only follow the primaries,

you don't know me.

That's by design.

So the status quo can keep a hold of your futures.

I bought this time and it didn't come cheap

because I'm my own man.

And because we need to have a hard conversation

about why both parties, and our system, are broken.

This is about the inventory we all need to take

in order to get where we're going,

even if we don't always like what we see.

Grigor.

Buddy, you're back.

You are surprised to see me here?

I'm surprised to see you here as well,

since four of the last five nights,

you've been spotted outside Oksana's penthouse.

My penthouse, not your own.

She's been distraught in your absence.

I've tried to counsel her.

Tell her to, you know, hang in.

This is why I brought you a special gift.

You should open it now.

Might come in handy in case you need to "hang in."

My friend Christian designed them personally.

Gossamer wings.

Now, I cannot tell you if they support flights,

since I didn't test them myself, but...

Since you live on the 29th floor,

maybe you would like to be the test pilot.

You could have sent this message in so many ways,

without coming to New York.

What fucking fun would there be in letting someone else

throw you out the window?

I swear, Oksana and I are just friends.

W-we're not even friends.

It was just a... a mere business arrangement...

But you spent so many months in her company.

I'll never see her again.

I'll stop funding the divorce action.

In fact, I'll end it with one fucking phone call.

It's hard to argue abandonment now anyway.

This is good news.

It clears the way for my own divorce suit...

on grounds of adultery.

Thank you.

My business is concluded. Now, yours can begin.

It's quite a favor Axe granted you.

And that you granted him.

How the hell did you two become friends again,

after what he did to you?

Well, one has the greatest respect

for one's fiercest adversary.

Who else believes so strongly in your abilities?

Well, it's time. You ready to do the turn?

Like Andre in '87.

Let's go. Out of the car.

You have no authority over me.

I am a sovereign citizen.

I reject the right of the United States to detain me,

or to compel my testimony.

I am a citizen of the greatest nation

in the history of the world, led by the greatest leader.

So fuck you and fuck America.

Mr. Andolov was here to testify

in a federal case, to work with us.

However, he took that opportunity to try and steal

sensitive military technology for his country.

Now, upon receiving this intel, I handed it off

to federal law enforcement for coordinated action.

Chuck.

As U.S. Attorney,

I realized that this was

a complex federal matter,

so I contacted Solicitor General DeGiulio and the DOJ.

Main Justice saw the critical nature of this case

on New York and included the state AG.

Using state police and undercover operatives,

we conducted a sting operation and interdicted Mr. Andolov

before any secrets could be stolen.

As you can see in the video,

his true sentiments came to light.

He will be deported immediately.

It is a bad day for the Kremlin,

a good day for justice around the world.

Questions?

What about the risk of rolling an old criminal

like Mr. Andolov into the U.S. in the first place?

He was poised to have...

Wow...

He swoops in, kills my play,

does a heel turn here.

He's rehabbed in Russia, a hero to the Kremlin,

quashing those rumors that he helped Ukraine.

You guys are all champions of the city.

It's quite a work you put on.

Except for the part with you.

That was a shoot.

Fuck. You weren't in on that?

No, real.

Only way I see it, everything he said stands.

He'll now have Moscow's full backing to do whatever he wants,

wherever he wants.

Long arms.

One warning was enough.

That and those fucking wings.

We cooperate...

The dial groups we ran during the speech...

Spiked the whole time.

I've never seen anything like it.

Mike is trending on every platform.

Pundits on both sides are calling it a major victory.

Calling me for jobs, too. My phone's blowing up.

All this coverage,

- you couldn't buy it. - But he did.

"Rising above the smallness

and negativity of the primaries."

"Owning primetime, because he can. Literally."

Mike wants to do one of these every month.

Draw up a check, I'll draw up a plan.

I owe you an apology.

We both had our points of view.

I had my own agenda.

Keeping control of the campaign.

You just served Mike.

No wonder he trusts you so much.

It's the kind of speech

no politician ever gives.

Because they can't afford to. In more ways than one.

That alone gives Michael Prince the edge tonight,

a true independent, storming the gates...

It's done.

I saw. Thanks.

No, I should be thanking you.

For making me better. Sharper.

For raising the level of play, as you always have.

I can't say I wish I was back there

slugging it out with you.

- We went enough rounds. - Yeah.

Took me some time to realize, that was reason enough

to help you from the start.

Old combatants' code.

That's the other reason.

Someday, and that day will definitely come,

I will call upon you to repay this debt.

And I know you won't come up short.

I'm going to twist Your head off, see

Till you say don't you wish

You never Never met her?

Don't you don't you Wish you

Never, never met her?

Don't you, don't you Wish you

Never, never met her?

Don't you, don't you Wish you

Never, never met her?

I beg you

My darling

Don't leave me

I'm hurting

I've been lonely

Above everything

Above every day

I'm hurting

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