Love Life (2020) s02e06 Episode Script

1
[narrator] Since learning
of Becca's pregnancy
as well as his own lack
of agency in relation to it,
Marcus had tried
to go about his life as usual
to control the things he could.
Marcus, you okay?
Oh, uh
Yes, yeah. Um
Could you print out Trae Lang's
new pages for me?
And, um,
could I also get a tea
with honey and lemon?
The hot water thing's broken.
Fine. Uh, coffee.
The coffee thing's connected
to the hot water thing.
Go to a coffee shop then.
Okay.
Wait, do you want the tea again?
- Or would
- I
[narrator] But everywhere he turned,
Marcus was hard-pressed
to find even a shred of evidence
that he was in the driver's seat
of his own life.
Even his own thoughts
seemed to have a life of their own,
playing an endless game of "What if?"
What if he'd never met Becca?
What if he'd never had that threesome?
What if he'd just worn a condom?
What if he just disappeared?
Better yet, what if Becca disappeared?
A carbon monoxide leak.
A piano falling from the sky.
Something quick and painless, of course.
He wasn't a monster.
Or maybe he was.
Maybe he was just another awful man
trying to weasel out of
the consequences of his own actions.
You can't hide in here forever.
I don't want to have a baby.
I don't want to be in love with the ex
who cut my dreads off in my sleep once.
But life throws shit at ya.
So your parents never
told you about the birds and the bees.
Okay, you have the
Okay you have For you it's this, right?
And you put on the condom
and then have sex.
And that way
- Kian
- babies don't happen.
After that last breakup,
I went through many women.
Did you get them pregnant?
I was gonna do IVF with Nicole.
But that would have been a mistake.
- Oh, my God!
- That would've been horrible.
But listen, man,
you're about to have a kid
that's gonna be literally,
genetically coded to accept you.
- That's cool.
- Right.
Because nobody hates their parents?
I'm just trying to
look on the bright side.
Seriously, maybe this will
bring you and this Becca chick
closer together.
I mean, it's fucking rough out there.
I can't find anyone to love me.
[scoffs]
Seriously, at first, I was kinda like,
"I don't want a woman to love me
because of my money."
And now, I'm like, "Fine,
love me because of my money."
Love me for something.
Shit, Kian, I'm sorry.
No, it's fine. It's all right. It's cool.
I still have some IVF in the freezer.
Can you see me with a baby?
[chuckles]
But come to think of it,
your baby would have had a cousin.
Yo, what is this?
MSG change the dress code?
Look at yourself.
Nah, nah, bro. Not quite.
You are looking at front office Yogi now.
[chuckles] Man,
that's what I'm talking about.
You made the leap. I'm so proud of you.
I'm glad somebody is. Tina saw my check
and couldn't look me in the face
for a week.
She was like, "Damn, assistant pay!"
It's cool though, man.
This is about the future.
Trying to set it up.
You gotta play the long game.
Exactly. She'll come around, man.
Oh. I don't worry about that, bro.
But if I hadn't had my kids,
I would be cool, just, you know,
- hanging out, being where I was at.
- [sighs]
Drinking a beer
with a dumb-ass sweatshirt on.
- All right.
- Ha!
Hear me out. Hear me out.
I'm not trying to lecture you.
Okay? I'm not.
But it's like, bro [sighs]
Like, I love my kids, man. You know I do.
They inspire me.
They're in the car
with the window cracked.
They're fine. It's the
Is that for kidnappers or dogs?
You crack the window for dogs.
You don't leave kids in the car.
- I thought, but
- No, if you turn the car off,
leave the radio on,
leave it on ACC, I think you're fine.
Anyway, the point
I'm trying to make, is they inspire me.
I wouldn't be who I am without them.
Like, you cannot tap out right now.
You gotta see this shit through.
But look, man, I mean, I
Becca already has two kids.
She doesn't need me.
That might be the most deadbeat shit
I heard in my life.
No, no, it's not
Come on, man.
You gotta be there for this kid.
The stakes are different for us.
The kid's gonna be Black.
It's a big deal. You understand me?
He can't be around hedge fund
motherfuckers and bankers.
They gonna have him watching The Help
to find out what it's like to be a
Black man in America. That what you want?
This is why I tried to have
a real conversation with Becca.
You can't try, you have to just do it.
You gotta mold this kid.
It's gonna look like you.
It needs to act like you.
Come on, you a great dude.
You got a lot to offer.
This kid is gonna be excited
to have a dad like you.
Plus, the whole fatherhood shit
That's where you get
your man badge at.
This is where you earn it, bro.
What kind of man do you want to be?
- Hmm?
- [horn honking]
Oh, shit, wait, that's my kids.
I gotta go. I'm double-parked.
I hope I got through to you.
Clean this shit up! And I'm not playing.
All right?
And shave, too. You look stupid.
[laughs]
[door opens]
[door shuts]
[narrator] In a split second,
Marcus' life had taken a sharp turn.
And for the first time ever,
he simply gave in,
- as messy as it was.
- [line ringing]
[Becca] Hello?
Hi.
Hi, it's Marcus.
I know who it is.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
How are you doing?
I'm doing okay.
[indistinct chatter]
Marcus.
Becca, hey.
Uh
Wow. You look
uh
Like a soccer mom in distress?
- [chuckles]
- No, no, no.
- I was gonna say
- [clears throat]
you look very normal and
- And healthy.
- Hmm.
That's the nicest thing
you've said to me in a month.
[woman] Becca Evans.
[clears throat]
Hi.
Here's the questionnaire
for the genetic counseling.
Thank you.
Um, he needs one, too.
[Marcus] Oh, hi, yeah.
I'm, uh, the other parent.
Oh, of course you are. [chuckles]
[mimics woman] "Of course you are."
- [in normal voice] What the fuck was that?
- It's it's fine.
I don't know who should be more insulted,
you or me.
Well, I'm pretty sure it's me,
but it seems like it's you.
Fucking bitch.
Thank you for coming.
I'm actually relieved
not to be doing this alone.
No, I mean, no, it's
it's good for me, too.
Every woman carries the risk of
having a baby with genetic issues,
but as we know, the risk
increases with maternal age.
Paternal genetics can affect this, too.
So
Looks like you skipped a few.
What about Tay-Sachs?
Does that ring a bell?
Do you have any Jewish ancestry?
Um, uh, no.
Right, of course not.
What about cystic fibrosis?
Uh
I'm not sure about that one either,
but I don't think so.
Can you find out?
Sure. I'll ask my mom.
Oh, you want me to ask now.
It would speed up the process.
Yeah, sure.
Um
Feel like I should have gotten an email
with this questionnaire in advance.
[line ringing]
Yo.
Hey, sis, quick question.
What did Uncle Henry die of?
Was that cystic fibrosis?
What?
Um, I'm at the OB-GYN with Becca.
Aw, that is really sweet.
Have a good time, Marcus.
No, no. Wait, wait.
What about Uncle Henry?
I don't know how he died.
Call Mom. I'm busy.
[sighs]
Okay, so you want to be a dad,
but you don't want anyone
to know about the kid.
[chuckles]
You sound like Drake 2.0. I'm telling you.
Well, I will tell them
when the time is right.
Uh-huh. Listen, Marcus,
I don't know anything
about our family history.
So just, I don't know, make something up.
[sighs]
No history of it.
You live up here, huh?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just a few blocks up that way.
Oh.
You've never been to my place.
No, I thought you lived
at the Palace Hotel.
[laughs]
Do you do you wanna come see it?
I make a mean cocktail.
- For you, not for me.
- I know.
You should see where you're gonna be
picking this kid up from.
Oh. Already having
the custody conversation.
- Cool, cool, cool.
- [groans]
I'm a planner. What can I say?
Yeah, clearly.
- Asshole. Come on.
- [laughs]
Such an asshole.
[liquid pouring]
I promise we are going to
baby-proof the shit out of this place.
I mean, I don't know. I might even move.
What?
And deprive the kid of this view?
I don't know, just trying
to make the best of my do-over.
- Cheers?
- Cheers.
[footsteps approaching]
Oh, God, Mom.
Is this the guy?
This is Marcus.
You literally said
we'd never have to meet him.
Do we have any food? I'm starving
and the animal shelter has shitty snacks.
It's community service,
not an all-inclusive resort.
Well, I feel like a fucking prisoner.
Maddie got a DUI after
swerving onto a lawn
and hitting a mini Labradoodle.
- Oh.
- [Maddie] Shut up, Mom!
Hey! I know you're angry, Maddie.
But I am not the enemy here.
I'm sorry you had to see that.
I just I don't know
where she gets that attitude from.
Oh, well, it's from her dad, right?
It obviously can't be from you.
- Yeah.
- [both chuckle]
I don't know. She splits her time
between here with me
and Connecticut with him.
And he just lets her run wild
it's like, a "fuck you" to me.
And they break your heart every day.
But she'll always be my baby.
Yeah.
[sighs]
I'm sorry that I yelled at you, Mom.
I just feel awful about that dog.
- I know.
- Will you help me think
of something nice to do for the family?
Of course I will.
I'm Maddie. Sorry about that.
I'm a cunt when I'm hungry.
- Oh, God.
- Oh, no.
- It's all good.
- All right.
- All right.
- I'm leaving.
Goodbye.
Hey.
Hey.
Can I come with you
to your next appointment?
- Sure.
- All right.
[narrator] Marcus had already
called in sick to work that day.
And as perverse as it was,
there was only one person
he wanted to see.
Luckily, it didn't take much convincing
to get her to play hooky as well.
[Mia] Hey, there he is.
- Hi. [chuckles]
- Hey, Mia.
Hey, sorry I'm late.
Holy shit, I always forget
how beautiful Central Park is.
Yeah, It's crazy that it's even here.
- It's insane.
- Yeah.
It's like a bit of
a normcore choice for you,
but I love it.
Anyway, how are you? What's up?
Um
I'm having a baby.
- What?
- Yeah.
With who?
Uh, with a woman
that lives on the tenth floor
of that building right there.
Wow.
Is she rich?
It's I Yes, yeah.
Uh
Are you
I mean, look, we're not
We're not together or anything.
We never really were.
- Okay.
- Yeah. [chuckles]
[Mia] I mean, you seem like a guy
who wears at least two condoms.
Well, wearing two condoms
puts the user at greater risk
- Yeah. Uh-huh. No, I know that.
- for malfunctions.
See, that's what I'm talking about.
I can't believe it.
You know, me either.
Are you doing okay?
I'm coming around.
I guess. I mean, it's fucking messy,
but,
I guess I've decided that that's okay?
I gotta say, I really appreciate
your blasé approach to fatherhood.
Oh, come on, man.
You know, I have never seen anybody
get down on a New York street knish,
harder than you.
Oh, but But, um,
a hot dog is like
That's Michelin star cuisine.
Yeah, this is iconic.
I'm a New York City icon right now.
- No, no.
- This is amazing.
So,
do you want kids?
- Did you want kids?
- You know, honestly,
I hadn't thought about it.
Emily and I promised not to bring it up
until after she turned 30,
and then she turned 30, and,
she just kept getting new IUDs.
And yet you still somehow
managed to impregnate a white woman.
How do you know she's white?
Marcus.
- She white, Marcus.
- It's [laughs]
I know. I know, she white.
She white, Marcus.
I know, I just
I don't want to suck at this.
You know?
I just want to show up in the right way.
Don't put too much pressure
on yourself, you know?
I mean, look at me,
I grew up without a dad,
and I have, like, no issues at all,
which is tight.
So what's your plan?
Oh, God, I mean,
Becca was saying
about moving to Connecticut
- or upstate.
- You would move?
- Wow.
- [sighs]
Uh, sorry, I'm just, like
I'm freaking out a bit.
You're freaking out?
I'm having the baby.
I know, I just I
it's it's a lot.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- [chuckles]
You know, um,
for a while there,
I thought you were ghosting me.
I was.
- [scoffs]
- Oh.
It was It was for your own good.
- Whatever.
- Trust me.
No, I have my own shit going on anyway.
Oh.
Yeah, yeah, I got that text.
Oh. Do you mean the text
you didn't respond to?
- Was it that text?
- Are you pissed at me?
No.
I shouldn't have sent you that.
You don't need a play-by-play
of my love life. That's insane.
If it makes you feel better,
I do like knowing when you dump somebody.
I don't know, I just
I'm done dating guys
that are all over the place.
Oh, you finally hit a wall, huh?
Me and this dude, we're just different.
I
- That's my thing.
- You don't say.
Hey, you have to at least give me credit
for recognizing the pattern.
That's like, an essential step to growth.
Oh. I don't know, maybe you should
date someone more like you.
Oh. And actually have it
maybe work out for once?
- Um
- [thunder rumbling]
Hard pass.
- Oh.
- Oh, shit.
[Mia laughs]
Oh, God.
What, that is
Are we in The Notebook? This is insane.
Fucking out of nowhere.
Hey, come on.
[Marcus exhales]
[Mia laughs]
[shivers]
Uh, all right.
- All right, how much is that?
- $10.
All right.
- What's up?
- Damn.
Nothing. I wasn't expecting
- to do six laps around Central Park.
- [chuckles]
Um
What what size shoe are you?
I am an 11 in women's but men's nine.
Okay, men's nine, okay.
Uh
Oh, snap. Look at that.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
But, you do know
it's bad luck to buy somebody shoes?
- What?
- No, seriously.
If you buy somebody shoes,
they'll walk out of your life.
Okay, now I know you're making shit up.
[bell tolling]
- [Marcus] Let's go!
- [Mia] Oh, my God.
[Mia] Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Oh! Are you skipping stairs?
- [Marcus] Yep.
- These shoes hurt.
- [Marcus laughs]
- [Mia groans]
[Mia] Oh, my God.
Oh, it's gonna close in five minutes.
- What?
- Yeah.
Churches don't close.
I think you have that
confused with casinos.
Well, that's not worth it
for five minutes.
Really?
Now that I ran up all these stairs
in these corner store shoes?
You are talking like
it's the Rocky stairs.
That's like 30 steps max.
A lot of us aren't secretly buff.
I've seen you in a Henley, man.
Oh, come on, come on.
Oh, I'm [sighs]
- You're
- Let's just sit.
You are really sucking wind.
Well, yeah.
You need to get your heart checked.
[sighs]
Hey, can I show you something?
Uh
I guess so.
- Okay.
- Okay.
All right.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah.
This is gonna sound really corny,
but I am really proud
of the way you're handling
this whole thing.
Thank you.
And now you see why I didn't call you
and tell you about it last month.
I would just assume
you were on suicide watch.
I was.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Yeah.
I just feel like
I'm doing the right thing?
I mean, not just for the baby, but,
- for me.
- Mm-hmm.
I had an abortion once.
Not a segue, but, uh
- Really?
- Yeah.
I was I was 18,
I just got out of high school.
And my mom wasn't having it,
and I sure as fuck
wasn't ready for a baby.
I didn't want people
telling me what to do.
How'd you feel afterwards?
I didn't really feel anything,
and then, I just felt relief.
And, uh,
now I honestly don't even
really think about it anymore.
I mean, do you I mean,
do you think you're gonna
want kids in the future
or
Sometimes I think I want kids,
and then I'm like,
"Who am I to be looking after
another human?"
Who is anyone?
[chuckles]
Let me ask you something.
Okay.
If you could bring back
- anybody ever from the dead
- Uh-huh.
but you had to kill somebody
who was living,
who would you choose?
Goddamn.
Mm. All right.
Bring back Bernie Mac.
Okay.
Kill Steve Harvey.
You gonna kill Steve Harvey?
- Yeah.
- Holy shit!
Would you miss him?
Maybe. He's a pretty good
Family Feud host.
I like Louie Anderson.
Marcus, I can't with you.
- He's idiosyncratic. He's interesting.
- [laughs]
He's his own being.
- What about you?
- Oh, my God.
I would kill you to bring Aaliyah back.
Oh, that's fair. That's fair.
[laughs]
[Mia] Well, that was really fun.
I got eleventy-bajillion steps in.
Oh, good.
You should tell me you're
having a baby more often. [laughs]
I'm sorry.
No, no.
No, I'm sorry.
I really like you, Mia.
I really like you, too.
[cars honking]
- Hey, what's up?
- [Becca] Hey.
- I missed a call.
- What call?
The doctors called to tell me
the results of the blood test.
- Oh. They leave a message?
- They did,
but they didn't say everything's fine.
They said to call back.
Oh, okay.
Um
Well, I'm I'm sure everything's perfect.
Nothing came back in our family history.
So just call 'em back.
I know.
I'm a little scared.
Do you want me to come over
and we can call them?
Is that totally ridiculous?
I'm so sorry to make you do that.
- I'm just
- No, no.
I'm on my way.
[elevator dings]
[doorbell rings]
[breathes shakily]
Becca, what's up?
[sobs]
Hey.
Okay, okay.
All right.
All right.
I'm sorry I didn't wait.
I just had a bad feeling. So
- I couldn't take it.
- It's okay
It's okay. What did they say?
Uh
The doctor said the results show
Trisomy 13, 18, um
Just a bunch of stuff.
Okay, didn't the doctor say
that the test isn't diagnostic?
Isn't there another test
that you can take?
No, this one was 99% accurate.
[sighs]
What do we do?
If I don't have a D&C,
I'll probably miscarry.
Okay, I'm coming with you.
That's so sweet.
But you know, I think, um
I think I really just
want to do this on my own.
Is that okay?
I'm really sorry, Marcus.
No, what? No.
[knock on door]
Hey.
Hey.
I I picked you up some good knishes
from Yonah Schimmel
because those park knishes were so nasty.
[both laugh]
- Thank you.
- Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Uh, come on in.
This is so much better.
[laughs]
- I know.
- Oh, God.
[laughs]
How are you feeling?
Um
Okay.
Um
This is gonna sound a little fucked up,
but,
maybe kind of
relieved.
[Jay Robinson's "You Are Mine" playing]
So what do we do now?
You are more ♪
Than the kind of love I pray ♪
Pray for ♪
You're the kind of love ♪
That will endure ♪
Yeah, honey ♪
You're mine ♪
Mine ♪
Mine, mine, mine, mine ♪
Even still ♪
Uh-huh ♪
You made me, darling ♪
Lose my will ♪
I never thought I'd do ♪
And it's all because of you ♪
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪