Unstable (2023) s01e01 Episode Script

1
[whimsical music playing]
[children vocalizing]
- [man 1] Hang in there, buddy.
- [man 2] C'mon, now.
[man 3 wailing]
[triumphant music playing]
It's just so beautiful.
[birds chirping]
["Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)"
by Scatman John playing]
[man vocalizing]
- [no audible music]
- [birds chirping]
No, that is not what we're doing.
[breathes deeply]
This is what we're doing.
Yeah, you got this.
[upbeat music playing]
Good morning, Becky.
- Hey, John, how's Arlo?
- Finally sleeping through the night.
I told you he'd figure it out.
[phone ringing]
Melissa, loved that calculation
on the activator-thymine ratios.
- Aw, thanks, boss. Appreciate it.
- And I appreciate you.
Aw. [chuckles]
What Pete, who is this?
My daughter, Sophia.
We had a childcare issue.
I hope that's okay.
She will stay out of the way.
Of course.
Sophia, never stay out of the way.
Ask questions,
challenge assumptions, disrupt shit.
Maybe throw some.
I'll try.
So, sweetheart,
do you even know what we do here?
Biotechnology.
Yes, and do you know
what that important-sounding word means?
Biotechnology, or biotech,
is any research and development
that involves modifying a living organism
to meet a human purpose.
Okay. So she kind of knows.
It includes everything
from genetic engineering, to biofuels,
to creating an enzyme, like you did,
that can turn sugar cane
into a plastic-like material
that's completely biodegradable.
- Technically, it's not plastic.
- I said, "plastic-like."
It's a polyethylene.
It's actually a bio-polyethylene.
- I know that.
- Didn't sound like you did.
- How could I not know if I invented it?
- That's what I was wondering.
There are Cocoa Puffs
in the kitchen, honey.
Okay, I am going to get some Cocoa Puffs
in my kitchen
of my company that I created.
[upbeat rhythmic music playing]
Yeah, I understand, Ted.
Ellis is doing great.
I think he spent last night in the lab.
I can assure you, he is laser focused.
I do not like any of our spoons.
Wait. No, I don't care.
The board is nervous.
I'll tell you what I do like. The new
infrared sauna in my office. Thank you.
What kind of dreadful CFO would I be
if I didn't approve an infrared sauna
so you could heat yourself from
the inside out like a microwave burrito?
I have more clarity
when my bone marrow's warm.
Are you all right? It's just you seem
to be getting more, maybe
I don't know.
Why dance around it? Crazier.
Crazier? Or am I just letting
the beauty of the world
move me in a more profound way?
That's literally the same thing.
We have 15 minutes till the board meeting.
They're going to want to hear
that you absolutely will meet
the latest benchmark
on the carbon project.
I have done everything I can
to buy you more time,
but since you keep missing deadlines,
you are now in danger
of losing control of your company.
[exhales deeply]
I'm not breathing with you.
[exhales] It'll calm you.
I believe I'm at exactly
the right level of agitation.
[inhales deeply]
Stop breathing.
The board has noticed that the corporate
therapist they got you has disappeared,
so they're also wondering about that.
[exhales deeply]
Anna, we are doing something
that has never been done before.
Something that will change the world.
And that requires tremendous creativity.
And if Einstein is right that
"creativity is intelligence having fun,"
then the enemy of creativity is behaving.
Okay, I see why people believe in you.
I'll meet you in the conference room
at 9:45. Don't be late.
And don't eat with two spoons.
[upbeat music playing]
[children vocalizing]
- And you're late.
- [Ellis] Don't come in.
Oh God.
What are you doing?
I want to have the board meeting
in the sauna
because it keeps people honest.
And then, I was looking for a towel, and
I just really enjoy being naked.
Maybe you came back too soon.
No, no. It's good for me to stay engaged.
Katie's accident
was only a couple of months ago, Ellis.
You were married for 30 years, so maybe
No, no, no.
Katie would've wanted me to keep going.
Of course, I wanted her to keep going.
Ellis, I'm so sorry she's gone.
Thank you.
Could you excuse me, please?
I'd like to be naked again
and feel the cold air
on my forlorn genitalia.
I will reschedule the board.
I'll tell them that you're fine,
but a bat bit you,
or you inhaled bat guano,
or something to do with a bat.
Everyone hates bats right now.
Anna.
You do so much for me
that I hesitate to tell you this next bit
because you're not gonna like it.
It has to do with the therapist
the board got me.
Oh God.
[upbeat music playing]
Malcolm, you know how you're obsessed
with Ellis and would do anything for him?
- Yes.
- We are up against a deadline.
I need Ellis in the lab,
but he's spiraling.
- Upward?
- Yes, Malcolm.
His wife, who he loved
more than anything has died,
and so, like an airplane that's lost
its wings, he's spiraling upward.
I know. It is in fact downward.
It's more than just Katie's loss.
The woman kept him grounded.
I feel like he's a week away
from living in a park
debating fusion with squirrels.
He loved Katie with an intensity
only found in music and poetry.
Almost like you love him.
- I'm sending you to New York.
- Okay. Why?
To bring back the one person
who might be able to ground him
like Katie did.
Okay. Who?
[upbeat music resumes]
[flute playing]
Okay. Better than last week.
Was it?
Totally. Last week,
Mrs. Fetterman banged on the wall,
so clearly,
she's seeing improvement as well.
- What's wrong?
- I don't even want to play the flute.
My dad makes me.
Oh [exhales]
Father-son stuff, man.
Don't get me started.
- Okay.
- You try so hard to please them, right?
But they want to make you a certain way,
even if that's not who you want to be.
And you hope that one day
that dynamic will change,
but when you realize it won't,
you come to terms with the fact
that no matter how much you love them,
you gotta take a break,
and that break is painful,
but let me tell you something, Ryan,
it's also restorative.
So is the lesson over?
No, little buddy.
The lesson's never over.
Not until we learn how to navigate
that very complicated relationship.
[knocking at door]
He's doing great.
It's me!
It's you!
[teacher] Mm.
Dude, when's the last time you ate?
Teaching flute doesn't bring in
a lot of money, so I don't get out much.
Plus the sauce for my chicken
is creeping towards my mashed potatoes,
so I gotta move things along.
It's got to be hard
not being able to let your foods touch.
They can touch.
I just can't eat them if they do.
So you're in town for a night.
We're dining on the company card.
Why did my dad send you?
Your dad didn't send me.
Can't two old friends hang out
without there being an agenda?
If they're honest with one another.
Okay, Anna sent me.
- There is an agenda.
- Boom.
Have you spoken to your dad
since your mom's memorial?
A couple of times. Why?
How'd he seem?
He's not doing great.
Kept talking about some side project
at work to turn himself invisible.
He wants to disappear. A shrink
would have something to say about that.
The board got him a shrink.
The guy shadowed Ellis for a few days
and then disappeared.
I don't mean he turned invisible.
He just vanished.
Again, not invisible.
Look, I love my dad. I do. It's just
Okay, then come to LA
and help get him back in the lab.
- I don't think that's a good idea.
- What if I told you please?
- Remember when I won that science award?
- No.
Exactly. That's 'cause Ellis Dragon
showed up, then they asked him to speak,
and he got on stage
and said my science was correct,
but that I needed to think bigger,
take more risks, move fast, break stuff.
It was an ant farm.
That was a great speech.
That's what got me into science.
Okay, you're missing my point.
All my dad ever does is try to change me
into being more like him,
and the rest of the world cheers him on.
It's why I quit science
and moved 3,000 miles away.
At least with my mom around,
she could run interference,
but without her, it's exhausting.
Jackson, Ellis is spiraling,
which I've recently learned
only goes in one direction,
and now you're the only family he has.
Okay. I'll go. For 24 hours. That's it.
Excellent. You'll regret it.
Don't you mean I won't regret it?
No. I'm lowering your expectations,
so you won't be disappointed.
Oh my God. Why am I doing this?
Perfect.
[whimsical music playing]
- Come in.
- Hi, Anna.
Jackson! Oh, you made it.
[chuckles]
So good to see you.
- Take a seat.
- Oh, okay.
So your father's been working
on an exciting, new project.
It's a way of drawing carbon
out of the atmosphere
and then using that
to manufacture concrete.
It'll lock up climate-changing gases
for over a thousand years
and will literally save the world.
- You like the world, right?
- Some aspects of it.
- Still worth saving, right?
- Some aspects of it.
Me too.
Now, Ellis has always been eccentric,
and we love that about him. Just love it.
But since your mother passed away,
he's been, well,
I'm gonna use the phrase "even weirder."
Hmm. What happened to the therapist
that you got him?
I don't know. He disappeared.
What do you want me to do about it?
Okay.
The point is it's been weeks
since your father set foot in the lab
to work on that important project
that will save the world,
which I know isn't perfect.
Still, we all love polar bears, right?
Don't want to see them die.
So we need him back in the lab.
I believe it's also what he needs.
Well, I'll talk to him,
but I'm not optimistic.
- Great. You're all we have.
- What?
- Off you pop.
- Do you know where he is?
I'm already regretting this,
so I feel like I should move quickly.
It's Tuesday.
He doesn't come in on Tuesdays anymore.
- Oh, why not?
- You are asking all the right questions.
[upbeat accordion music playing]
Jackson! Malcolm told me
you might be coming.
Oh, Juan, this is my son.
The musician.
Flutist.
Or is it flautist? I'm sorry.
I know you've told me,
but all I can remember
is that it is a life of constant struggle.
I know there's not a lot
of successful flute players in the world,
but that's a good thing.
- Supply and demand. Not much supply.
- Because there's no demand.
[Ellis and Juan laugh]
Why are you working on a landscaping crew?
Let's talk about your life choices.
I used to teach philosophy.
- But then one night, men came
- Not you, Juan.
Because in order for me to be creative
in my other job,
I need to expand my experiences.
I thought
that's what the microdosing was for.
- He took too much. Danced with a ficus.
- It was heartbreakingly beautiful.
But, yes, I'm taking a break.
In the meantime,
this work helps me feel alive.
To feel I'm having an immediate effect
on something. Have you ever laid sod?
Nope, Dad, I live in New York. Last week,
I broke up a fight between two rats.
In the morning, there's nothing but dirt.
By mid-afternoon,
there's a vibrant green lawn.
It's like giving birth.
To a lawn.
That's great. Let's get out of the hole,
and go to the lab
and show me the project you're working on.
Or I can give you the shovel,
and you can see what you've been missing.
Try something new. Expand your world.
So I can be more like you?
Microdosing and making love to a tree?
There was no sex.
It was a straight bossa nova.
Right?
[bird squawking]
What's so wrong with being more like me?
How many times
have you been on the cover of Time?
I don't want to be you.
There's enough you in the world already.
- It hurts to see him go like this.
- He doesn't want me in his life.
- Perhaps because you try to change him.
- I just want to help him.
Children. They want our help.
They also want to be loved as they are.
How can we accept them without condition
and, at the same time,
help them to live lives
they cannot imagine?
Tell me.
Go. Find out together.
Why can't philosophers
ever just give a clear answer?
- Why do you want them to?
- [groans]
Jackson. Jackson, don't leave.
Why?
I want to show you
what we've been working on.
In the lab, right?
Yeah, in the lab. So put your car
in my car and we'll go together.
- This is amazing. Is it a plant?
- It's a biomass.
It's 10,000 times more dense than a plant.
- Actually
- Roughly 10,000 times.
It's 9,942 times.
Like a plant,
it sucks carbon dioxide from the air.
100,000 of these would be
the equivalent of a trillion trees.
- 900 billion.
- Roughly a trillion trees.
- Which would pull 40 billion tons
- 39.247
Roughly 40 billion tons
of climate-changing carbon gases
from the atmosphere every year.
Boom. Earth wins. Suck on that,
all y'all who bet against us and science.
Okay.
But wait, there's more!
Ruby, tell us what else the Earth wins?
No, it is Luna's time to shine.
Luna, explain, simply, without numbers.
When the biomass reaches
its maximum density, we add an enzyme
that converts the carbon to a material
that can be used to make concrete.
Boom, go to hell, assholes.
Sorry. Sometimes, I'm not great
with interaction. Boom.
Ah.
So we have been working
with dependent dehydrogenases,
but we haven't been getting enough
electron transfer between the peroxidase.
Have you tried isolating
the O2 independent oxidoreductase?
- Is he smarter than us?
- My parents think so.
Nonsense. You are all brilliant,
including this one,
who uses his intelligence
to blow through a tube with holes in it.
- Mm. Thank you. It's good to be here.
- [chuckles]
Ruby studied tissue regeneration at MIT,
which is what Jackson studied
getting his engineering degree at Cornell.
Before he made "other choices."
Really? I worked on an artificial nose.
Oh, cool. I worked on a toe.
It's the nose of the foot.
Oh, one of my professors made a penis.
Nose of the crotch.
[chuckles]
- Luna.
- I'm seeing it too.
I need to show you something.
Oh.
What?
Um, well, you know,
I'm just here for one night, so
Don't fall in love with you?
Thanks for the heads-up.
That's so my thing.
No, that's not what I meant. Mm-mm.
What I meant was
I'm gonna go find my dad.
See if you can get him back here.
- He hasn't been around much.
- Will do. [chuckles]
Oh, no, now I have to watch you walk away?
How will I ever resist that?
[chuckles]
[chuckles]
[whimsical music playing]
Luna, do you know where my dad went?
[whimsical music ends]
Jesus!
[Ellis]
We're working on an invisibility cloak.
It's not 100% yet.
There's also the classic
"invisibility cloak eye dilemma."
You need holes in the fabric,
so the person can see out.
But then it looks like two eyes
floating in space.
Which is the exact opposite
of being invisible.
[Ellis] More like the shroud
of "Holy shit! What's that?"
- Nanofilament.
- Excuse me?
Whatever you're using to bend light
so it doesn't reflect
needs to be so thin
you can see through it.
- Have we tried that?
- We've talked about it.
Go! Make it happen.
I want light to say, "Where is he?"
"I don't know." "Never trusted that guy."
Okay, sure. Let's piss off light.
But that could take years,
and we have karaoke tonight.
- Oh! I hope that you're
- [Luna] I'm not singing.
[sighs]
[distant phone ringing]
This is so cool.
You'd love it here.
No, don't start with that.
I'm not coming to work for you.
I play the flute.
That did not sound strong.
That's because it's the flute.
At least come to karaoke.
Ruby's gonna there. She's young, smart,
and hasn't seen you play the flute.
I'm not hooking up with Ruby.
And stop trying to turn me
into someone else.
I don't want you to be someone else.
I want you to be exactly a version of you.
A version of me?
- Exactly sort of you.
- So not me.
You, but with some tweaks.
Would you like to hear what they are?
No, I'm not the one who needs fixing here.
Why make this about me?
You love it when it's about you.
It's always about you.
And, by the way, this is about you.
- Okay. We can talk about me.
- Good.
But not right now.
I have to choose my song for karaoke.
Please come. You can tear into me there.
[groans]
Aha!
We're running
With the shadows of the night ♪
So baby, take my hand,
It'll be all right ♪
Surrender all your dreams
To me tonight ♪
They'll come true in the end ♪
[audience cheering]
I killed that shit.
Baller move,
singing the same song right after me.
Perhaps to teach you
how it's meant to be done.
I don't think I know you.
The important thing
is do you know yourself?
Yeah! Anna Bennet!
The best singer/CFO in Biotech!
And yes, I'm including Jeannette
at United Therapeutics,
who's got a fine voice
but is weak on inductive reasoning
and financial forecasting.
[audience groans]
Come on, you know she is. You know she is.
Oh, hey.
Hi. I was just taking a break.
Don't think I don't enjoy loud people
or crowded spaces. So my jam.
Yeah, I came to talk to my dad,
but I've only got to watch him
take a great song and skin it alive.
It's a quarter after one
I'm all alone and I need you now ♪
Said I wouldn't call ♪
But I've lost all control
And I need you now ♪
And that's what happens
when literally no one says no to you.
[grunts] So, uh, why'd you come tonight?
I've been told I should push myself
out of my comfort zone.
Yeah, I've been told
I could use a few tweaks too.
[chuckles]
When I was six,
my dad made me be in the school play.
And then he heckled me.
"No one can hear you. Speak louder."
I wanted to cry
but was afraid he'd yell to cry louder.
Hmm.
- So I just peed.
- Oh.
- Loudly.
- That's the saddest thing I've ever heard.
[chuckles]
Thank you.
See, I'm good at meeting people.
[Luna chuckles]
- Uh, my dad thinks I'm wrong.
- About what?
Just generally. Like about everything.
Oh. Well, what do you think?
I don't know. I'm trying
to make a living playing the flute.
That might be a mistake.
Who hires flutists?
People who want
to rid their village of rats.
And that happened, like, literally once.
Yeah, and that Pied Piper dude
didn't even get paid.
[chuckles] It's true, yeah.
His dad was probably like,
"All you got was children?"
Yeah, and he was, like, "Oh, leave me
alone, Dad. I know what I'm doing."
- "Everyone gets paid in children first."
- There you are. Come on, you're up.
No, I'm not singing. You said we'd talk.
Sing first. Come on.
Come on, It'll be fun.
Please don't tell me what's fun.
You like karaoke. I don't. So what?
[Ellis] Expand your horizons.
Live a little.
Maybe go to the gym.
Okay. Maybe you should go to work
and stay there.
Maybe don't spend a day
giving birth to lawns.
I just want to expand my world.
Why is that such a problem for you?
- You can go.
- Thank you.
Dad, if you can't focus on work,
the real work you're supposed to be doing,
the board will get rid of you.
That's ridiculous. Besides, all the work
that is meant to be done will get done.
Juan taught me that
when we got behind
on the Mendelbaum Zen garden.
Hmm, okay. I tried.
I love you. I'm going to the airport.
I'll see you at Christmas.
I miss your mother.
[light melancholic music playing]
So much I can't stand it.
And something has shifted. My
My brain, I
I can't just problem-solve anymore.
I need to feel excited. I need to
feel inspired. I need to just feel.
- Tell me how to help you.
- Support my landscaping.
[exhales] I support you.
I'm the only person in your life
who doesn't indulge you.
It's never too late.
Oh, come on, you're leaving?
We were just spitballing ideas.
You don't need to take the first one.
[indistinct chatter]
Hey, everything all right?
Where's Jackson?
- Uh, he left.
- What?
Without his mom,
I don't know how to do this.
Katie always helped us find the words
so we could talk.
[inhales sharply]
- Now we just make each other crazy.
- Maybe he just needs to cool off.
No, I know him. He's done.
You know him, do you?
["Down Under" by Men at Work playing]
I don't know him.
[audience cheers]
[audience cheering]
My son, the flutist.
Or flautist.
I really have to lock that down.
As much as I would like you to stay
and work with me, you have a gift.
A very, very, very niche,
potentially useless gift. But still
I miss her too.
I know you do.
And I miss this.
[Anna] Jackson, Jackson.
[inhales sharply] So, um, I was wondering,
now that you and your dad
are getting along a little better,
you might stay longer.
I have to give a lesson tomorrow.
Charlotte, she's excruciating,
so she really needs my help.
Okay, I wasn't gonna tell you this
because it's kind of intense.
Also, I don't want
to make you an accessory.
An accessory like a hat or a brooch?
To a crime, Jackson.
An accessory to a crime.
Like an ugly hat or a brooch
could be a crime?
That therapist the board brought in
to work with your father.
Well, I kind of know what happened to him.
Oh my God. What happened to him?
- What's poppin'?
- The therapist that the board sent?
- Leslie.
- Yeah.
- What happened to him?
- He's in my basement.
He's in your basement?
You locked him in your basement.
I think that's worth mentioning.
God dammit!
He was threatening to send the board
a very unflattering report on me
unless I gave him a lot of money.
Which I did.
- And then he wanted more, so
- How long's he been down there?
- A couple of days.
- And you knew?
Only since yesterday when your father
was naked, and I had a lot on my plate.
- [whispers] Help us.
- Is this a problem? Yes.
But like invisibility, I believe
that it is one that can be solved.
Ugh, I gotta go feed him. You know what?
He gets very upset when his dinner's late.
[whimsical music plays, ends]
[closing theme music playing]
[closing theme music ends]