Tilt (2005) s01e06 Episode Script

Previously on "Tilt" We can't just deposit this cash in our bank account.
Casino is a perfect place to do that kind of thing.
No, you're asking me to commit a felony.
Money laundering, that's not my thing.
- I'm placing you under arrest, Nickel.
- What? Mirandize him and put him in the system.
You make sure you tell Skip and the others how I stood up and did my part, huh? I'll be sure to, Henry.
No! Aah! Who do you work for? Or do you want to try for two? No! Seymour Annisman! Seymour! Seymour Annisman.
I've been aware for some time that we need to make a change here.
Bart, you're fired.
You and you are working together against me, and all these cameras around here will show that.
Nickel, you made bail.
- What are you doing here? - You and me got a lot to talk about.
You know, you and your pals figured that you'd end up on my radar sooner or later, so I want you to pay the price for trying.
Get him up! Whatever gave you the idea that it was OK to bang my daughter? Maybe it's time to pack up this gypsy wagon and move on.
Really? Where to? AC? - How did we get played like that? - Everest had inside help.
Yeah, Eddie.
You know, you take a beating for your pals, and down at the old medical, you'd think maybe they'd come when you call.
- We thought you switched sides.
- After Seymour? After Come on, can you really blame us? After how that game went down, man? All right.
You know, I got about ten grand stashed - 9800 actually.
We'll just whack it up three ways and then we can all make our own decisions about the future, because obviously we are no longer a team.
I guess that's not really the kind of bracelet we were hoping for.
I learned how to shoot craps from a guy who had been a medic in Vietnam.
He used to say that his time in the country convinced him of only one truth in life.
When guys got busted up over there, it didn't matter whether they were white or black, fat or skinny, rich or poor, a fresh recruit or a hardened noncom, they all, each and every one of them, when they were shot to hell or had just seen enough of it, cried out for their mothers.
What's got you up at such an hour? I'm still up.
You're gonna get sick.
Mom.
- Coffee? - Yeah.
Eddie? What? Look, I was bobbing when I should have been weaving.
I'm OK.
What are you into? Black.
I'll take my coffee black.
Mom? The money? - My 9800? - It's gone.
Hey.
How'd it go? - I was on fire tonight.
- Mm-hmm? Where did ya end up? - 9800.
- Hmm.
- It was, uh it was a judgment call.
- And the right one.
Yeah.
- I just kept picturing Henry yapping.
- They're saying it's justifiable.
They're talking about a medal.
Still, it's weird.
In 30 years, I never pulled a trigger.
You did what was necessary.
We stick together and just go forward from here.
Killing can have an effect on a man.
Guilt is a corrosive agent.
- I think we can trust him.
- Why is that? Because now he has just as much to lose as we do.
Miami? Heard you had a little problem at the Colorado.
- Can you help me find an easy game? - No way.
Phil.
Just 'cause you're on Don Everest's bad side doesn't mean I have to join you.
Funny, you didn't strike me as the type who scared easy.
Oh, "scared.
" It's not about fear.
It's about cash.
Everest puts the mark on you.
Word gets out.
The whole town knows he's not Mr.
Clean.
The town don't count.
What counts is me making money.
- Huh.
And here I thought we were friends.
- Please.
You're a good-looking broad who kept idiotic losers at my tables while they thought they had a chance of banging you at the end of the night.
But friends? I don't think so.
- Hey! - Hey! - Jeez.
Damn.
- Look, you're finished! All right? Don't ever come around - Hey, that's a nice watch, pal.
- All right.
Manners, huh? Where have they gone? Yeah.
Randy Joffa.
- Miami.
I could have handled that.
- I believe it.
Still, I was raised the right way.
You don't remember me, do you? I know who you are.
Everybody knows the Joffa brothers.
- You own half the strip.
- Not half.
18%.
But you know, maybe someday.
So you know who I am, but you don't remember me.
Hmm.
- You cleaned me out.
- Two years ago.
- No limit at commerce.
- There you go.
- But you still came to my rescue.
- Well, I'm a good loser.
And you won with a lot of style.
- I'm bored.
You hungry? - No.
Not tonight.
Maybe tomorrow night? I don't think I'm gonna be around that long.
Hmm.
Just in case.
- Living the high life? - Why should I trust you? - Does this look like county lockup? - Looks like a setup.
Yeah, all right, fair enough.
I think I might see it that way from where you're sitting.
OK, let me lay it out for you.
I worked with Don Everest for a long time and I always knew eventually he'd screw me over.
So that day is here.
The problem for him is that I'm not the guy to just let him crap all over me and just move on.
Running out of options.
He owns the cops.
Yeah, he does.
And he's tough.
And he's shrewd.
But he's not invincible, and he can only fight so many battles at the same time.
Is that your plan? Malloy's gonna put him up as my replacement.
That's one opening for us, 'cause the truth is, Everest has always had a piece of the hotel off the books.
- We get the IRS to look into that.
- OK, Eliot Ness, so you just ring 'em up and say, "We got you a new Al Capone"? It's not that simple.
We get some press and rattle his cage.
You get some ink on it, you get the right sort of people looking into it.
I want him for killing my brother, not playing with money.
All right.
Next front.
I've tried to keep as good a list as I could of all the horses he's used to set up games.
You work those guys.
You only need a handful to sing the same song.
At least I won't be fighting by myself anymore.
No, you won't.
Then we'll make allies.
Then we'll smack the crap out of Mr.
Everest from all sides.
Look at you, man.
Raging Bull, huh? You ain't even pretty no more.
Yeah, I heard they gored your ass out pretty good, man.
But you know what? If you're gonna get your clock cleaned, it might as well Yeah, I know.
It might as well be by the best.
I find real solace in that, Ricky.
Thanks.
- You got it? - Yeah.
I got it.
- All right.
- Yeah.
Well, look here, you know that, uh that blond thing you run with? She calls herself Miami.
Yeah.
I was thinking maybe I'd get a little introduction, you know.
- You and her are just business, right? - I don't know what's going on with Miami.
- Except you couldn't handle her.
- Yeah.
What the hell are you so spooked about? Just thought I saw somebody I knew, that's all.
All right.
I know you've been down this road before, but you know I gotta say it.
It's like a professional disclaimer, right? You know with these cats, patience is never a virtue.
- I know the drill.
- All right.
All right, I'm just saying, 'cause there's been a whiff of I don't know man, like, desperation around you lately.
What are you getting at? The juice on this one is three points, not two.
Let's up the ante so we can win ?Igotmycardsonthetable Deal me in Yeah, I've been a gambler all my days This is the roughest I've ever played You've got to play the hand you're dealt This is the luckiest I've felt Spiffy, aren't you? True style never goes out of style.
They do say that style can be something to hide behind.
- That so? - Yeah, people lacking substance, they get all slicked up to distract us from what's missing.
I'll raise 500.
Call.
You know, like common decency.
The trouble these days is people dress like mutts, somehow they think it doesn't reflect badly on them.
- Like loyalty.
- Take time to dress nice, shows you respect yourself.
Like a soul.
I raise 500.
A thousand.
I have to raise you here.
You might want to take another look at those cards.
Oh, you're gonna raise me? A little late for that.
A day late, dollar short, baby.
That's my motto.
Takes two to tango.
You ever have an original thought? Call.
All in.
Yeah, let's do it.
- Chop.
- See that? We get to share.
You must be Eddie.
Dad, what the hell are you doing back in town? - Yeah.
- You're late already.
Everyone knows things didn't go your way the other night at the casino.
- Who is this? - Listen, you better have a payment plan.
- What? I don't owe you anything.
- You committed, then you bailed out.
That was your decision.
You still owe.
Besides, you're on the hook if we say you're on the hook.
- And this is "we" as in who? - Listen, I don't want - Look, we gotta deal with this another time.
- We friggin' better.
It's pretty damn impressive, Clark.
Looks like you're a hell of a numbers man.
I'm just curious, these last two years, there's nothing here.
- I was traveling.
- Traveling? Yes, through Africa.
Oh, I see.
Kind of a get back-to-the-roots type trip, huh? - Not really.
- I always wanted to go over there.
Did you get to check out any of them safaris? I grew up in Jersey.
- We had that jungle habitat.
- No, no.
I was volunteering.
Right.
Well, lots of poor, I guess, huh? So what brings you back home? You ever get to the point where you know that it's time for a change? Yeah, sure.
What I want right now is to be the top broker at Mullin Securities and I think that you need me just as much as I need you.
You see, now, that is the attitude I love.
Clark, just so you know, everyone here starts the same.
That means cold calls till your lips turn blue.
It's churn 'em and burn 'em, baby.
And we don't work on a fee basis.
It's all commission, all the time.
My mother always told me I could sell milk to a cow.
- All right, then.
Welcome aboard.
- Thank you.
There used to be this old Vegas family owned the Colorado.
- Little bit before your time.
- Yeah.
Spawn of which was a fella named Billy Landry.
- Always heard he was a good man.
- Anyway, Malloy buys the place, right? Everest, he's out here and plugged in, so Malloy figures he needs him.
Gives him a piece of the action - off the books, of course.
I don't know, people said 12%, but my best sources said seven, seven and a half tops.
Anyway, now they got to worry about keeping the commission at bay.
So Malloy's no fool.
He sticks Landry in as president and bingo, everything is peachy.
Short story long, Landry decides he doesn't like the way they operate.
Starts mouthing off, making all kinds of noise he's gonna exercise a buyback clause or something.
I don't know.
Even called me two or three times, trying to get a story rolling.
All I know is, last time I see the man, he told me he was going to meet Seymour Annisman.
- Then? - Then? Landry's the new Jimmy Hoffa.
No, I'm sorry, fellas.
No deal.
- You still won't write this up? - About Everest? - Yeah.
- Nah, I don't think so.
Ernie, thanks.
- Thank you.
- See, I got this bad habit.
It's called breathing.
I kinda got used to it and I'd like to keep it up.
Gentlemen.
Angela? - Surprised? - Yeah.
I can't believe this was all about Wayne.
- Come on, honey.
- The brother you'd go six, eight months at a time without talking to? How often you talk to your sister up north? My sister up north, whose name is Sarah, by the way, never faked her own wedding to drum up cash and gifts to blow gambling.
He was sick, but he was getting better.
You wanted money? I sold the Winchester and the log splitter and I put your fly rod on eBay.
- Angela, not my T-3? - Lee.
You need to hurry the hell up and come home.
I'm running out of lies to tell the kids.
Come here.
- Clark.
- Whoa, whoa! - You OK? - Blake.
Yeah, it's just that these places kind of give me the creeps.
We've got security cameras all over the joint.
That's good, that's good.
Feel better already.
- You had a good first day? - Yeah.
Everything was great.
I gotta run.
- All right.
- See ya later.
Can you stay for a couple of days? It's a lonely place.
Lee you know I have to get back to the kids.
I know.
Just remember that what you have is as important as what you lost.
What the hell do you want? I was Seymour's friend.
Give me a minute.
When I called to check in, Seymour told me about you and your brother.
He said you were like a bad tooth in his mouth.
It wasn't your fault, though, but you kept getting in his way every time he tried to eat.
He also said that you were a good man.
He told you all that? Seymour treated me good.
Just like I was regular.
So you came back to do the right thing? That's right.
You know, you're not the only one who has issues with the Matador.
- Yeah? - Mm-hmm.
We were working with some others.
A player named Miami Here you go.
Anything else? Miami, Clark Marcellin, Eddie Towne.
I know Towne.
He's one of Matador's boys.
Not really.
I'm listening.
The main event is coming, and it's time to fill up the stables.
I need 30 fresh horses, guys who like their buy-ins paid for, can handle themselves at the table, and take out some tough players.
They drop their stacks to me along the way for a cut.
30 new guys? That's impossible.
Why can't we just use the regulars? We need new faces.
Guys that have no connections to us whatsoever.
You'll find 'em.
- Just be honest with me.
- Aren't I always? You gave Dad my ten grand.
Your grandmother called.
Your cousin Arlene got herself into USC.
What, a suit, a smile, that all it took? - You don't know him the way I do.
- No kidding.
He left when I was seven.
- He's not a bad man, Eddie.
- Sure he isn't.
Good guys, they ditch their wife and kid all the time.
I mean, what makes him so great? He didn't pull a Scott Peterson? The way he used to walk into a room, every head would turn.
Didn't I ever tell you about the time that he took me to The Plaza for my birthday? - Real class.
- You skipped that one.
You told me about the time he took you to Atlantic City for St.
Patty's Day.
You remember that? You remember how you flew down in that helicopter, and by the time you had changed to go out, and you'd freshened up, he had busted on the crap table and you were on a bus back home.
He has a good heart, Eddie.
How many times he hock your engagement ring? He won it back every time.
Well, he's shacked up at the Western with some bimbo.
She's tall, blond, about my age.
Holy crap, Mom.
You still love him.
God, he suckered you out of my money.
Oh, no.
Don't don't tell me you slept with him.
Some guys just aren't cut out for the settled life.
Most guys just live up to their responsibilities.
Is that right, Edward? Well, that's funny, 'cause I don't see you heading down that road any time soon.
- I'm scared, man.
- Hey.
I understand.
But what'll you do when the Feds get involved and start building a RICO case? They can get me for erasing that tape? That's a crime? Obstructing an investigation into multiple homicides.
They cast a big net with a RICO case.
Catches all size fish - big, small, whale or minnow.
You get charged for the same case, you do the same time.
- Multiple? - Come on, you're a young man.
60, 70 years with modern medicine, you may even live to get out.
What do I have to do? You still have your Colorado pass key? - Table is ready, Mr.
Joffa.
- Thank you.
- Where is everybody? - I promised you a nice, quiet meal.
- OK, Mr.
Big Shot.
- No, it's not like that.
I just like my privacy.
Should we look at a menu? Oh, Peter, the chef, is a friend of mine.
He always does something special for me.
OK, how many times a week do you do this? - Is this your big move? - I meant when I come to eat here regularly.
- Uh-huh.
- Thank you.
Oh, do you do you have any objections to an '87 Bordeaux? - As long as it's wet.
- Good.
I'm glad you called me.
- I'm late.
Sorry, Daddy.
- Sit down.
I said sit down! I'm not that late.
You just had to go sleep with him, didn't you? You had to get involved.
You didn't seem to have a problem with it before.
Well, I did.
Maybe I just didn't show it.
I'm not Mommy.
You can't run my life.
That may be so, but as long as you're here in this town, you're gonna do exactly what I tell you.
You liked that I was close to Eddie.
You pushed us together and it helped you.
- I didn't tell you to sleep with him.
- Hazard of the job.
Come here.
Listen, you keep an eye on that punk.
Keep him in line, and that's it.
Nothing more.
You follow? - Eddie doesn't dance for anybody.
- He did plenty of dancing for me.
You took his money and you beat him down and now you want me to feast on his bones? What kind of a threat is he to you? Why can't you just leave him be?! Come here.
Listen.
Only a fool underestimates a wounded animal.
OK? Here it is.
The one of Everest taking out a black dude and a blond chick.
Good.
Is it the only copy? We don't make copies as a rule.
That's my special job.
Probably be good if you just don't show up to work anymore.
Wait a second.
You said if I helped you out, I'd be in the clear.
In the clear with me, but as far as Everest goes, it'd be best if you just vanish into the desert.
Oh, this has been fun.
I needed a distraction.
Oh, is that all I am? - It's all I can handle right now.
- Boyfriend? Don't say husband.
Nope.
I'm a moving target.
Well, I am one hell of a shot.
I tell you what.
Why don't I keep moving and you work on your aim.
Hmm.
Pleasure is my business I wanna make you feel all right Bet.
Do you have a favorite ball player, man? I got one for every sport.
We having a conversation or are we playing cards? Is it gonna hurt you to give me an answer? Can't you just give me an answer? Fine.
I like Kevin Mawae.
Works hard, sacrifices his body, plays hurt.
- You gonna call or what? - Nah, but I'm gonna raise.
Ten dollars.
Mine's Killebrew, by the way.
Harmon Killebrew.
OK.
I re-raise.
Call that.
Know why I like Harmon so much? 'Cause he was fatter than crap.
He could get his bat around quicker than a chili-cheese breakfast.
I bet.
Call.
Check.
Bet.
I'm in! Fine.
Your lame-ass set of threes is good.
Always play three.
Harmon used to wear number three, you know.
Déjà vu all over again.
Aren't you supposed to be? - Wyoming.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- So you know? - Yeah, I heard.
It's why I'm back.
You know he didn't jump, right? - He would never do that.
- We all know that.
What did he used to say? He wanted to live long enough to see his enemies in the ground.
Yeah, he called the obituaries the sports page.
I got a guy who can help us.
- Oh, yeah? - Yeah.
I think so.
Look, I'm having a really good night.
The kind of night I need to be having right about now.
Please, just hear him out.
Come on, just hear him out.
- Him? - I made him promise not to tell.
I knew you wouldn't come.
Come on, Eddie, you're here.
Let him break it down for you.
Everest is a cautious man.
He's a careful man.
He has a permanent home-field advantage.
And he's beyond my reach.
I can't even walk into his casino.
What's keeping you out? Something tells me you know exactly what's keeping me out.
So you cheated a cheater.
Where's the proof? Video.
That's all of it.
No copies.
I'm only gonna ask one thing in return.
Help me break him.
I feel lucky just to be alive right now.
Tell you what.
I'll think about it.
Give me the answer I want and the tape's yours.
- Clark Marcellin.
- Hey.
What's up? We need to meet up.
The old Sunset Lounge, all right? Look, man, I already told you that I want out.
- Got a guy about to buy big on Wiltronics.
- Call him back.
OK.
All right, sir.
I'll call you back.
- OK.
- Want to know what I have here? This company we use for background checks, bunch of ex-Feds, very thorough.
You can't think you need a degree to do this job.
What, do I? Hell no.
Problem is, that's very much beside the point, and the point is, I don't make the rules, and there are rules.
- What burns me is that you flat-out lied.
- Look, I do have my Series 7.
I don't even want to know how you managed to get that without a degree.
You can let me go because I was too bored to finish college and replace me with some smart-ass with a paper who couldn't convince a burning man to jump into a lake, but you see the numbers that I put up.
I've run this office for nine years, I've never seen anyone come out of the gate like you.
If I was straight up with you, you would have never hired me.
Those two missing years on your résumé? Please tell me they were not spent locked up somewhere.
- No.
I was playing cards.
- Make a living at it? - Most of the time.
- Any other surprises? You're the one that has the thorough background people.
Yeah.
We keep this between us.
But anything else and you're gone.
Now go and make us some more money.
Where's that ten grand we're cutting up? - It's gone.
- It's just just gone? It's just gone.
What, gone like like like our shot at the Matador gone? Gone like every damn penny I have to my name? He saw us coming.
- OK, what next? - We cannot just walk away from this.
I haven't slept a night through since this whole thing's happened.
Yeah, well, I can't get a decent game, so - I'm done following your lead.
- Fine.
Go ahead.
Make your own decision.
But if I walk away from this, I spend my whole life living it down.
I question every other thing I do.
And by the way, my friends, so do both of you.
Well, Everest got the game wired, he got the place wired, he got the whole damn city of Vegas wired, man! Sometimes, you just you take a beating and you walk on.
It's called life.
You know, this isn't just about cards.
It's bigger than that.
- Maybe that's it, then.
- What is? We can't beat him at this game, let's change the game.
Right, right.
We challenge him to Parcheesi, lure him into a high-stakes bingo parlor or something.
- I think I can get us back into the Colorado.
- What? Man, we step foot in the Colorado, they will wrap our asses in a pretty little bow.
That's the best-case scenario.
Not without the videotape of us working together, they can't.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
You've got that look on your face.
You know, that "I got lousy news for Don" look.
The footage of you and those three kids is gone.
- Well, how the heck did that happen? - I don't know.
You know, Luke is Lowball's boy.
Maybe he had a pang of conscience.
Probably no point in looking for him, right? No, probably not, but maybe I will anyway.
Eddie.
Um he isn't here.
- Do you wanna wait? - All right.
- Do you want drink? - No, thanks.
You know, I feel like I spend half my life waiting for him? Only half? Hmm.
Hmm.
God, you are just one big old knot, huh? - He doesn't have that effect on you? - No.
Your father tends to lose focus when he gets around a casino.
He ignores you, huh? Maybe it's an age thing.
I don't know.
I never dated a guy who - You know? - Old enough to be your father.
Hey.
He treats you like dirt.
So, why don't we be bad little kids and have some fun, hmm? And it'd feel really good.
Man, you two must be perfect together.
Prodigal son.
Son? Maybe it's time we try to relate as adults.
It's never your fault, is it? Sometimes it is.
- I'm man enough to admit it.
- Really? Well, you hit Mom up for ten grand, which would be her problem, except that ten grand was mine.
- Your ten grand? - What a sport.
She owed that money to me.
Where she got it is none of my business.
- Owed it to you.
- That's right.
I have very little time for this.
Here's what we'll do.
We'll split the country in half.
You take everything east of the Mississippi.
How's that sound? - I ever tell you about your grandfather? - So what? He left you, you left me? Is that it? History repeats itself? I remember sitting on the floor in the dark one winter.
They'd repossessed the furniture, shut off the lights, eviction notices were piling up.
Your grandmother sat there on the floor just staring at the wall.
At this point, she's way past tears.
The old man walks in, takes in the scene, he was half in the bag.
You know what he said to us? He said, "Don't worry.
I will never leave youse.
" "I will never leave you," like he's doing us a favor.
- My mother never wailed so loud.
- Now you're about to make me cry.
See, that was the problem, Eddie.
He stayed.
There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't pray this guy would disappear.
What is this? The "facts of life" speech I missed out on when you were too busy being a chickenshit? You can't escape your blood, kid.
Hey.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? Like I said, you're young yet.
But you know, I look at you and you know what I see? I see me.
I see me in a quarter-century-old snapshot.
Except I wore better clothes.
What's the line from that movie? "It's in the genes, Charlie.
" "The horse got absolutely nothing to do with it.
" You'll learn the hard way.
We all learn the hard way.
What's he gonna learn from you, Jimmy? You stay the hell away from Mom! Remember when we laid out those ground rules? No threesomes, except on your birthday? Well, happy birthday.
- It's not my birthday.
- Well, tonight it is.
On the next "Tilt" Hello, everybody and welcome to our exclusive coverage of the 36th World Poker Championship.
Everest will need a big win, so he'll be working with horses.
Couple dozen, maybe more.
If we do this thing, that's a secret I'd like you to take with you to your grave.
And if you don't, chances are you're gonna get there a little bit sooner than you expected.
Gotta hand it to you, man! You got a lot of balls coming in here.
The only reason I'm here is to figure out what it'll take to get you guys off my back.
Unfortunately, we're dealing with somebody we can't say no to.
- Sit down! - Take it easy! - We know you killed Seymour.
- Who's gonna prosecute that? We'll find someone.
And he won't be wearing a Rolex.
You and I are in the same boat, same boat Tropical Henry was in right before he got returned to sender.
I don't know a damn thing! - The World Championship's this week.
- Yeah.
I'll be there.
- You gonna win? - I ain't playing to lose.
- Maybe I'll come by and check you out.
- Maybe I'll like that.
It's where they sent me.
How do you like that? Well, well.
Sorry, honey.