True Story (2021) s01e03 Episode Script

Chapter 3: Victory Lap

[upbeat dramatic music playing]
[alarm ringing]
[sighs]
[toilet flushes]
Yo, C.
- How'd you get in here?
- [maid] The other gentleman let us in.
Would it be okay to start in here now?
Yeah, please. Yeah, go ahead.
[knocking on door]
- Hey, hey, hey.
- What's up, champ?
Time to get that work in, baby.
It's gym time.
Yes, sir. Give me a minute,
lemme throw my shit on.
All right, cool.
[Herschel]
We're gonna hit them legs today.
- Yes, sir.
- Mm-hmm.
[vacuum cleaner whirring]
[man on TV]
A lot of people kid themselves.
They They know when they were born,
they know where they're going,
they know about whether
they're gonna go to heaven, to hell.
They think they know. They kid themselves.
But the only people who are,
you know, happy
[cell phone vibrating]
are the people
who are comfortable. That's right.
[stops vibrating]
[Greek hip-hop music playing]
[continues playing]
[song stops]
[phone chimes]
[vibrating]
[vibrating]
Yeah.
[Savvas] Yeah. Your brother's in town.
You promised you'd have
our fucking money when he got here.
Yeah. Well, look, it's a lot of money.
You know, I gotta move slow.
[Savvas]
Slow gets your legs broken, Carlton.
Slow gets you one eye
like Sammy Davis. Don't go slow.
Hey, Savvas. I'm gonna have
your money this week, all right?
Good. Hang on.
[in Greek] I'll ask him
about our brother now,
see what he has to say.
[in English] Carlton, you seen Ari?
Ari?
Nah, nah. Like, I seen him, like,
day before yesterday, something like that.
- Yesterday?
- Yeah.
When?
I don't wear a watch.
Three, four, something like that.
He was hounding me for that money too.
[in Greek] He saw him the day before
yesterday, but he doesn't know yet.
[in English]
Come to the club tonight, Carlton.
- Nikos and I wanna talk to you.
- Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah.
Come to the club. Yep.
Turn it up. All right. See you there.
[Carlton sighs]
[Greek hip-hop music playing]
[chimes]
[dings]
[Carlton clicks tongue]
[suspenseful music playing]
["Ain't No Stopping Us Now"
by McFadden & Whitehead playing]
[machine beeps]
We're on the move ♪
Ain't no stopping us now ♪
We've got the groove ♪
[Kid] Mm.
[exhales]
Matter of fact,
I'm gonna get something to eat.
Cool, man, then Cosmic Jack at 5:00?
- Yes, sir.
- All right.
Hey.
I hope you understand, I was dealing
with a lot of shit yesterday, Hersch.
Yeah, I get it, man.
You know, shit tough on you right now.
I appreciate you, though.
I appreciate everybody I got around me.
Every last person.
I appreciate the fuck out of you all, man.
- [elevator dings]
- All right, here we go. I'm out, man.
All right, man.
- Want me to go with you?
- No. You good.
- Okay. Cool. In a minute.
- [Kid] In a minute!
Appreciate you, man.
Mm-mm-mmm.
[Kid humming softly]
Hmm. Looking for new material?
No. That stuff has a weird way
of just falling on my lap.
Oh.
I'm sorry that I ran up on you yesterday.
That was
I don't know if you are,
'cause you're doing it again.
- Oh, right
- I'm fucking with you.
- It's a joke.
- [laughs] Yeah, okay.
I actually owe you an apology.
Yesterday was a little crazy for me.
I had a lot of shit going on.
But today is much better.
I'm in a better space, so
Good for you.
- I mean, who needs crazy in their lives?
- Not me.
That's for damn sure.
I got way too much of it.
And I do remember you, you were
introducing yourself again, but
I remember you from
last time I was here, like a year ago.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I was on tour.
And you were very specific
about getting my egg white order right.
Mm-hmm.
But you didn't come to the show,
I left you tickets, you never came.
I was going through it with my ex.
I mean, he wasn't my ex then but
[Kid] Got it.
You like standing up
over sitting down, or?
Oh! For
- Yeah, okay.
- Yes, please.
Talking about break-ups, take a load off.
- I can relate, I'm going through a damn
- Divorce.
- Yeah.
- I saw.
- How are you handling it?
- The divorce?
[Andrea] Mm-hmm.
Not well.
It is what it is, what you gonna do?
Yeah, me too.
I haven't even been on a date
since me and that fool
I was in love with broke up.
Not one date?
- Nothing. No. Nothing.
- None? Wow.
Not one.
["Slow Motion (Part 1)"
by Johnny Williams playing]
[woman moaning]
Slow motion, yeah, baby ♪
[moaning]
[man on phone]
It looks bad going off on a fan.
You can see his heart break.
You can, but fans' hearts break
when shit doesn't go their way.
A little slip up, we're gonna
get it cleaned up. Okay?
What's next?
[Terry on phone] Yeah, I'll go.
Uh, Kid called other night.
He asked me to put,
like, 500K together, immediately.
He said he wanted
to "do more for Carlton."
[sighs] Jesus. Okay, what'd you say?
- I said that we should wake you up.
- Good.
Yeah. Well, he shut that down.
[man] Guys,
Carlton's not the only problem.
My phone is blowing up
about Monyca and her boyfriend.
I mean, that's gonna be a media shitstorm.
Okay, everybody take a breath, okay?
Isn't there a way maybe that helps us?
[man] Wait, how?
Well, you know,
everybody's up the guy's ass.
Isn't it a lot more appealing
to go away for six months?
Get out of the public eye.
Do the sequel to a huge blockbuster movie?
- We're not gonna push him that way, but
- [phone ringing]
Guys, I gotta go. This is my wife.
Terry, you do not move that money
until you hear from me. Okay?
- [Terry] Got it.
- Bye.
- Hey.
- [Dr. Anthony] Hey, Todd. I got your text.
- Okay.
- It read a little frantic. You okay?
Yeah. I am. I am. Um
I reached out 'cause, um,
look, Kid is up to his old shit again.
And it is getting to me in
in ways that I just
I thought I was over. It's getting to me.
Are you staying on track with your eating?
Yeah. Um about that.
[knocking on door]
What up, champ?
Man!
Dude, I really feel like we're gonna
get away with this shit, man.
We got a problem.
- What problem?
- Ari's scumbag brothers want to see me.
- Why?
- Probably to ask if I've seen Ari.
Yeah, I went through his phone and, uh
he didn't tell 'em
he was coming to see us, so
Why do you have the phone?
What if he has Find my Friends
or some shit like that on his phone?
Criminals don't use Find my Friends, K.
Besides, it's a burner phone,
you can't trace it.
All right, so, you go see 'em.
After you go see 'em,
you tell 'em that you ain't seen Ari.
Yeah. [exhales]
- Little more complicated than that.
- Why's that?
They're my silent investors
in the restaurant.
I'm sorry?
They're my silent investors
in the restaurant.
I'm into 'em deep.
Real deep.
How much?
Six hundred thousand.
You don't think that's information
I'm supposed to know?
God, man!
All the money that you've taken from me,
and now you took 600K from
Greek gangsters whose brother we killed?
Give me your phone.
- What you gonna do?
- Gimme your phone.
Here.
All right, okay.
[phone beeps]
Yo, look, you know who this is.
Uh, quick video message
to let you guys know
that I'm gonna go ahead
and pay Carlton's $600,000 debt.
I'll wait for Monday morning,
the banks open,
I'll wire you guys the money ASAP.
Uh, this is a visual
and verbal contract between us.
All debts will be paid.
- All right, done. Listen to me, bro.
- Oh, bro
Hey, listen. This is what I wanna do.
All right, give them this.
Let them see the video.
When they see the video,
they'll know they got their money.
When they know, that takes away
all motives of you killing Ari.
There's no reason for you.
Uh, bro
[laughs]
I mean, this is way over the top, but
- I really appreciate you. Really.
- Yeah.
Oh, man. [chuckles]
Fuck.
C, if we get through this, we good.
Yeah.
[sighs] I mean
Hate losing the restaurant and everything.
C, the restaurant, that shouldn't even
be a thought right now, man.
- That's not the priority, man.
- Right.
The priority is getting through this.
All right?
Maybe you come on the road with me
for the next couple weeks.
- Word?
- Yeah.
Come on the road. We We chill.
We do whatever it is that we do.
Right? Let things settle down.
Then we come back,
we talk about the restaurant then.
You wanna open it? We discuss that then.
- I'm with that.
- Yeah.
- I'm with that.
- [knocking on door]
That's Hersch.
I've got radio promo
I gotta do with Cosmic Jack.
Cosmic Jack hates you.
Talks shit about you all the time.
You don't think you should call
and defend me, jackass?
No.
You're rich.
Got it made.
Got a great life.
He spends most of his day
in a radio booth.
That's a good point.
[Kid grunts]
Look, I'm gonna go get some rest.
Clear my head,
so I don't say something stupid.
Why don't you
come to the show when you're done?
Yeah, if I don't get gutted like a fish.
I think it's too soon
for that joke. Don't you?
[scoffs]
[knocking]
Coming, coming, coming.
- Hey.
- What up, champ?
Uh, just grab a second
before Cosmic Jack.
Yeah.
Um, I wanna
I'm just checking in with you, man.
Yesterday was like
Haven't seen
that version of you in a long time.
It was a tough day.
- [Todd] It was.
- [Kid] Yeah, I had a tough one.
I had a lot of shit going on. You know?
I didn't deal with it properly,
so it kept building up,
and before I knew it, I don't know,
I was just being an asshole, my fault.
I'm not looking for an apology,
I'm just checking in with you. For real.
I'm glad you came up, man.
I wanted to talk to you about the whole
All this Carlton shit.
Everything that's going on.
I kind of feel like
because there's so much,
I need to cut him a break.
[Todd] Oh. That's not
what I thought you were gonna say.
No, listen,
my reason for saying that is because,
regardless of the money issues
or all his fuck-ups,
I don't want that shit to become mine.
Like, I don't wanna deal with it.
[Todd] Right, but it's Carlton
we're talking about. It comes back on you.
[Kid] I know that, Todd.
I know what you're saying.
I know where you're coming from.
I know why,
'cause you're like a brother to me.
But I want you to understand,
he is my actual brother.
There isn't a world where I can leave that
man hanging. I have to be there for him.
Regardless of the problems,
it is what it is.
[Todd] I'd never ask you to not do that.
I just gotta
speak my truth on this though.
I respect your love for your brother
and I have your back.
My guy.
All right.
Hersch is in the Sprinter,
we're good to go.
Done. Where's, uh, where's Billie at?
- I don't know, gave her the afternoon off.
- Uh, well, call her.
She can come to the radio station,
and I can go over
the beginning of the show.
I wanna talk to her
about some other stuff.
- I've got good news for her.
- Okay. I'll call her up.
- [cell phone chimes]
- [door closes]
[phone chimes]
[suspenseful music playing]
- I'm hungry. Y'all hungry?
- Oh, yes.
I need to eat, man. Oh, here we go.
[fans clamoring]
[Kid] Okay, listen, guys,
when I come back,
I will try my best to get everybody,
but we gotta run. Okay?
- Can we talk?
- Gene. Hey. Listen.
Yesterday, man, my bad.
I snapped on you, I shouldn't have.
I was having a shitty day.
That's my bad. I'll take that, okay?
Okay. I just need one minute.
How about I make it better for you?
VIP tickets to my show tonight.
Deal?
Huh?
- Really?
- Yeah, solid. Todd, do that for me.
At will call, okay?
We got tickets for you.
[Kid] We gotta go, we're gonna be late.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Todd] Jay and Beyoncé wanna
throw you an after-party at Up&Down
after the Madison Square Garden opening.
- Cool?
- Yes, very nice. I'm into that.
[Todd] Okay.
And, um
[clicks tongue]
we don't have to decide now now,
but the studio
is all over me about the sequel.
They wanna just start to negotiate.
- And I think there's no reason not
- [Kid] Todd, listen to me.
Tell them I'm in.
Really?
Dead-ass. Tell them I'll do it.
- Okay.
- All right.
- It's a sequel. How bad can it be? Huh?
- It can't I
Billie, what do you think?
- You think it's a good idea?
- Yeah, if you say it is, boss.
[Kid] What is that?
What's that?
That's not convincing at all. [chuckles]
Yassa, boss, sounds great.
Oh, wow.
I hope you don't use that accent
when you open for me at the Garden.
New York will not like that.
You fuck around, you get boo-ed.
Boo-ed bad. They'll think
you're doing Kizzy from Roots.
Or the lady from The Help.
I don't know what that was.
Was that Grilla?
Is she doing Grilla right now?
That's a hell of a way to say I'm sorry
when all you had to say was, "I'm sorry."
You don't wanna do it?
- I didn't say that.
- Did you say you did?
- I haven't said anything.
- Take your time.
- Think about it.
- [Todd] Billie!
While you do that,
let's talk about my opening five.
What do we got? Where are we at?
Where can we go? What can we do?
Okay, the last few days
have given you a lot of material.
You got a lot to work with. Right?
You got your brother,
you got your wife dating a sports god. Uh
Oh, your first movie
that's about to cross a billion,
knowing half your points
are going to Monyca.
What else you doing
that we don't know about? Huh?
You in trouble or [chuckles]
you on the run from the law?
No.
Yeah, what we have is fine.
That's enough. That's hard.
That's the area we wanna be in.
Um, yeah, stay there, man.
Fuck, I feel good.
[cell phone vibrating]
- Yo, what's up?
- [Monyca] You forgot to call me back.
Uh, my bad. I got tied up.
We're not gonna talk about
the Shade Room thing?
Shade Room thing?
You talking about your date?
Uh, no, I guess that's what happens
when you get divorced, right?
You're not mad?
No, I woke up this morning very grateful,
appreciative for everything that I have,
I decided not to let anything bother me.
I'll take that. And I'm sorry.
Hey, Christian may call you tomorrow.
He freaked out a bit.
- I'll let him tell you.
- Tell me what?
- Well, he's mad at me. Very mad.
- Tell him to call me in the morning.
- All right. Bye.
- All right. Bye.
[announcer on radio]
Philly's music leader. MIX 95.6
- [funk music playing]
- [Cosmic Jack] Kid, Kid, Kid.
First, Anti-Verse is fire!
- Going across a billion.
- [chuckles] Yes, sir.
Your first. How does that feel being
part of a movie that everybody's seen?
Uh I mean, amazing.
It's a little unreal, man.
I'm in a conversation now
with Anthony Mackie and Don Cheadle
about best Black superhero. Right?
Uh [laughs] You can't write that.
Now, is that the thing for you?
Big budget movies from here on out?
I mean, I wouldn't say it's the thing.
It's not like I have one thing.
But this is what
my fans are enjoying right now,
and it makes me wanna give them
more of it. I'll say that.
Well, since you brought up fans,
you know you're trending
for giving old boy the business yesterday
at the children's hospital.
Word on the street is
he's one of your biggest.
- I hear you can be hard to deal with.
- I can be hard to deal with?
- That's just what I hear.
- Kinda sounds like you're hating.
- A little bit.
- Me?
- Yeah. A little bit. No?
- No, not at all.
Maybe I'm reading into it wrong.
Um
Look, to clear this up,
Gene is one of my biggest fans.
In life, you make mistakes.
I'm not perfect.
I've never claimed to be. Um
This was a mistake that was made
and I might have to
walk it back and make it right.
Fans can be hard to win back.
I don't think they're hard to win back
if you don't mind humbling yourself,
which I have no problem with. Um
I got Gene coming to the show tonight.
You know, he's coming backstage,
we'll hang out, we'll talk, we'll laugh.
You should come.
- You should actually come and hang out.
- Okay.
Shoot.
I don't think Do you have VIP passes?
[laughs]
Okay.
- Yeah.
- Real funny.
["In The Middle Of Nowhere"
by Vinnie Paz playing]
I lay waste to your self-esteem
And your attitude ♪
So show gratitude
For leaving it right there ♪
Instead of laying this left hook
On your right ear ♪
[song halts]
[suspenseful music playing]
[exhales]
I got this.
[siren wails in distance]
["Heebie Jeebies"
by Bishop Lamont playing]
Abstain from the mundane
Refrain from the simple and plain ♪
I just train and upgrade my brain
Maintain the side of my own lane ♪
You mimic, gimmick, all sound the same
Like porch monkey, I ♪
- [waitress] Here you go.
- [Carlton] Yeah, what's up?
[chuckles nervously]
- [Savvas] All right.
- So, about that money I owe you.
[Savvas] Yeah, we'll get to that.
We still haven't heard from Ari.
Even though we've tried him many times.
[Carlton] Hmm. That's strange.
Usually he hollers back
when I reach out to him.
You think he doesn't return our calls?
Nikos, I'm not saying that, man.
I'm saying that, you know
maybe he's off somewhere
blowing off steam or something.
[Nikos] No, that might be
how your people do things.
Go off, get wasted,
curl up with your baby's mama.
[laughs]
You fucking make your family worry,
but that's not how my people operate.
Right. Right.
So you know how my people act, huh?
And yet here you are,
asking me where your brother is.
Hey, hey. Ease up, man. Ease up.
Look, hurting me
ain't gonna help you find your brother.
Hey, Ari hasn't called us,
and he knows better.
Truth.
Yo. Sometimes Ari dips when
he doesn't wanna be bothered by y'all.
What the fuck is "dips"?
Like, avoids. Both of youse.
[sighs]
[in Greek] Why are we
talking with this asshole?
Why are we still sitting here?
Let's break his face,
remind him who we are.
He knows who we are.
[in English] Right? Carlton?
You know who we are?
Nikos, I'm just saying,
your brother,
sometimes he feels like y'all
don't see what he can bring to the table.
You know,
that shit gets a little old, man.
So, sometimes people get tired
of getting looked down on.
People thinking they don't know
what the fuck they're doing.
Yeah. Sometimes people
get fed up with that shit.
They wanna bounce.
[chuckles]
You know what I'm talking about.
Look, here's my advice.
Instead of tearing up all Philly trying
to find your brother, just fall back.
And, you know, when Ari shows up,
then he can tell you
why he did what he did.
Answer might surprise you.
- [in Greek] Shit culture.
- Tell me about it.
[in English] I told you
if Carlton knew something,
he would tell us if we were face-to-face.
Definitely.
So, you're saying we treat Ari
the way your brother treats you?
Ari said
he's a shitty fucking brother to you.
- [in Greek] Hey.
- Hey what?
- You torture Ari.
- Me?
What the fuck are you talking about?
You've been yelling at him his whole life.
[in English] So, I'm gonna go ahead
and let y'all work
this family shit out, all right?
Carlton, we appreciate your honesty.
But we still expect our money, this week.
Oh, oh, oh. About that.
Yo, look, you know who this is.
Uh, quick video message
to let you guys know
that I'm gonna go ahead
and pay Carlton's $600,000 debt.
I'll wait for Monday morning,
the banks open,
I'll wire you guys the money ASAP.
Uh, this is a visual
and verbal contract between us.
All debts will be paid.
Yeah. Okay, uh, we good?
- [both chuckle]
- We're good. We're good.
Oh, Carlton.
No transfer. Cash.
[Carlton] Oh, make it happen.
[laughs]
Yeah. You boys have a good time, man.
[exhales]
Fuck.
[line ringing]
[Kid] Leave a message.
Don't forget, I write my own jokes.
I met with them cats tonight.
They, uh, they want cash.
And they're not playing.
Look, I'm gonna skip the concert tonight.
Talk to you tomorrow.
[engine starts]
["Pain" by De La Soul playing]
Pain will make it better ♪
[indistinct conversation]
So, I cannot stop thinking
about Kid's weird turnaround today.
[Herschel] We were talking about that.
What? First he offers me
Madison Square, weird,
then he lets his wife off the hook
for being with her new dick in public.
And then he tells Hersch
he's grateful. "Grateful."
What is that?
- [laughs]
- Did he find Jesus? I'm serious.
Or what? Is he like Ebenezer Scrooge,
he just woke up from some badass dream?
[Todd] You know what he is?
He's happy. He's killing it on stage.
Can you grab him?
- You gonna run these jokes now?
- Yeah.
- Thank you.
- Mmm.
Billie, I didn't tell him
about the Will Ferrell thing,
so this Madison Square thing is genuine.
Question is, are you ready
to do the thing you've been dying to do
since we found your ass on YouTube?
- I mean, I don't know. To be honest.
- You don't know?
Yeah. It's been a minute
since I did a set, first of all.
- So I don't know if I have the material.
- Maybe you should find the material.
'Cause if you say no to this,
20 years from now,
right before you pass out drunk
in some gross bar,
you're gonna think,
"Oh, my God, I could have gotten on stage
at Madison Square fucking Garden
and done all the jokes
you're pissed at him for not doing."
Come on. Say yes.
Time for the star to shine.
I'll think about it. Don't touch me.
[Todd] All right.
Hey, man, time for the star to shine!
Dude, what a great
group of people, all of them.
- Seriously. Yeah.
- Yeah?
You're so fucked.
All right. Come on. Let's get one in.
Uh
Dear Heavenly Father,
I come to You and, uh
I guess I wanna say thank you,
thank you for all that you've given
and and allowed us to do
on this amazing journey we've been on.
Um
I know I don't talk to You as much
as I possibly should. I'll do better.
Thank you for the ability
to make people laugh.
I ask that You let this audience tonight
receive these jokes
and laugh as hard as they possibly can.
In Your name we pray.
- Amen!
- [all] Amen.
- All right. You good?
- [Kid] Yes.
- I'll be outside.
- [Kid] Let's get it.
Be right out. Right out. Um
Hey, um, just wanted to double check.
Haven't heard you
get your prayer on like that in a while.
- Need anything? You good?
- I'm good.
- I'm good.
- Have a great show.
Come on.
[Kid humming]
[man] Yo, Kid!
[laughs] There he is. What up?
Whoa, whoa, okay, Axel Foley.
Calm down, we're friends. It's Will.
From the plane.
I loaned you my cell phone charger.
- Yeah.
- And you kept it. [laughs]
My company has a suite here,
I was telling my boss about
how we were chopping it up on the plane.
I'm about to go on stage,
maybe after I'm done, we can finish.
- Sure. First, this is Shelly.
- Hey, Kid. Great to meet you.
Since you're in town,
our company would like to have you
at our fundraising gala
for charity this week.
If you're free,
15, 20 minutes tops. That's it.
I would love to talk more.
I gotta get on stage, maybe after that.
Last year we had Kenan Thompson.
I mean, he was fantastic.
But if we could get you,
it'd be fantastic.
- Talk to Todd.
- We're gonna take you over to the VIP.
Gene! Talk to them.
Gene! Hey!
[chuckles]
This is exactly how I pictured
backstage would be.
It's cool, right?
I just passed by Mario Lopez.
[laughs]
That's not the biggest star
you're gonna see tonight, I promise.
Duh. Who's bigger than you, right?
- Oh, come on, Gene. Stop it.
- One-minute warning.
- Thank you.
- But we still need to have that talk.
No, man. No. We don't. That's over.
Let's put that behind us.
That's water off a duck's ass.
We don't ever
have to talk about that again.
No, no, no. This isn't about the hospital.
It's about last night.
- What about last night?
- I saw you at the park.
What?
- I followed you last night.
- Thirty seconds, Kid.
I felt so bad
with you being angry with me
that I desperately wanted
to tell you how sorry I was.
Why would you follow me?
I couldn't tell you because, um
you were occupied.
[softly] Dumping that body.
- I have footage of the whole thing, but
- Wait, Gene.
What did you just say?
I have footage of the whole thing,
but I figured
- Lower your voice. Lower
- You're up, superstar.
If I showed you footage of the kids,
you'd know I wasn't lying.
- Listen to me. Why would you follow?
- [Todd] Gene, he's gotta go.
Come on into the VIP.
You're up. Here we go.
- We can talk about it after.
- [Todd] After the show. Let's go.
[Grilla] Coming to the stage,
the motherfucker
you've been waiting for all night!
[crowd cheers]
Grilla had a good set.
They're warm
and ready for you to slay them.
You good?
[crowd cheering]
Gonna be a good one. Have fun.
[Grilla] Ladies and gentlemen, make noise!
[crowd cheering]
[suspenseful music playing]
[muffled cheering]
[muffled chatter]
[man] Billie in the house!
[woman] We love you, Kid!
[muffled laughter]
[suspenseful music builds]
Fuck.
[dramatic music playing]
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