Love Life (2020) s02e09 Episode Script

[crowd] Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four, three,
two, one.
Happy New Year!
[narrator] It had been nearly four years
since the implosion of his marriage,
and Marcus had spent enough time drifting.
Enough time wallowing.
Enough time fucking up.
This was a new decade,
and with it came a fresh start.
He had even waded back into dating,
proud of himself for simply
seeing where things took him.
Yo, uh, wait, who are you here with?
You now.
If Marcus was sure of anything,
he was sure of this.
2020 was going to be his year.
[sneezes]
[Anjali laughing]
[narrator] Due to the state of the world,
what had started as simply
seeing where things took him,
had now resulted in Marcus
having a new roommate.
- Oh, my God.
- And cohabitation is often the true test
of a bond between two people.
[man on video call] Marcus, sound good?
Sounds good.
[narrator] But sadly, this was a test
that he and Anjali were quickly failing.
Hey, baby, what's up?
Hey.
Uh, where were you?
Sorry, I had to go to a yoga class.
You had to go to a yoga class?
Don't worry. We were all super safe.
Everyone had masks on.
We were six feet apart.
Blah, blah, blah.
[exclaims] Uh
Did you wash your hands?
What do you mean?
When you came in just now,
did you wash your hands?
Oh, I was totally just about to.
And, uh, did you sanitize this thing?
Like before I came back home?
I think I did.
You you think you did?
Yeah, someone had sanitizer there.
Okay, sorry.
That's not making me feel any better.
Yes, I sanitized it.
I was so safe.
Okay, um
Look, Anjali,
I don't think this is working out.
Are you breaking up with me
because I went to a yoga class?
No, no, no, not because of that.
I mean, well, actually, yes, but look,
you're great.
You're fun. I like you.
It's And I guess that's just it.
I just like you.
And I gotta be honest here,
I don't see this going anywhere.
So rather than just floating along
until we hate each other,
we should call it.
Plus, I'm not trying to die
over some yoga.
It was one class. I won't go anymore.
Yeah, I Uh
[hesitates]
Marcus, it's a pandemic.
I'm sorry, Anjali.
[plays discordant note]
[narrator] Marcus still believed
that this would be his year
despite the sudden
disappearance of his office,
his gym, his new girlfriend,
and his toilet paper.
Well, everyone knows that,
like, Zoom and Amazon
and Netflix are gonna be huge,
but there's more value
in these less sexy companies.
Write this down. Shot.
Shot's gonna be a rocket ship.
Okay, wait what's shot?
Vials.
Vaccines.
No, dude there eventually will be one.
And we're going to need
hundreds of millions of vials.
[Emily] Did you tell them
about the lumber?
Oh, my Lumber.
Listen to me here.
There is a company, a lumber company,
that I think is going to do
some sort of, like,
outdoor dining setups for
the summer in New York City,
should be huge.
Are you sure you know what you're doing?
Listen, if you do what I tell you
when I tell you to, you'll be fine.
All right, bro.
[pleasant music playing]
[Marcus exclaiming]
Hey, sis.
[Ida] Air hug. Air hug.
- [Jaleesa] Hey.
- Smells good, Jaleesa.
[Jaleesa] Marcus, look,
I'm sorry we can't hug you.
[Marcus] Oh, nah, it's okay.
[sighs]
Here we go.
[Marcus laughs]
That is a lot of toilet paper
for somebody that thought
this would be over in two weeks.
I did. But don't be mad at me and my baby
'cause we have a Costco membership, okay?
And now, could you make sure
you don't get, you know,
sweat on my floor?
[Marcus] I bike all the way from
Clinton Hill and you worried about sweat?
[Ida] Yes 'cause it look like
you have a fever, it's scary.
Anyway, how you doing, bro?
[Marcus] Uh
I've been better. I've been better.
This pandemic is tough solo.
Solo? What happened to your girl?
We broke up.
Damn, what happened?
[chuckles] Well, I mean, nothing happened.
I just I just wasn't
feeling it, so I ended it.
Oh, good for you.
I didn't think you had it in you.
[both laughing]
All right. Well, how about you two?
We doing good. [chuckles]
- We getting married.
- We getting married.
Ahh. Aah!
August 20th. We've got a date.
Wait, wait, of this year?
Yeah.
Well, nobody's gonna come.
Perfect. We'll save a fortune.
[Ida laughs]
But you're gonna be my best man, right?
Really?
Marcus, of course, you're my brother.
Who else would it be?
[cell phone ringing]
- Hello?
- Marcus. [coughing]
How are you?
I'm okay.
More importantly, how are you?
I got the Rona.
Dude, are you serious?
This is no joke. I'm hacking up a lung,
I got a pounding headache.
I can't taste shit.
Well, what are you doing in the office?
My wife kicked me out, said it wasn't safe
to be around the house with the kids.
Okay, well, just be sure to take it easy.
You look really sick, man.
I wish I could, but I got my hands full
with all this furlough business.
Wait, what? Furlough?
No, not you, buddy, okay? Don't worry.
That's why I'm calling. I need you.
It's only gonna be five of us from now on.
The Fab Five.
[sighs]
At least I'm not letting you go, you know?
[coughing]
Got it. Okay, well, thanks.
All right, Marcus, I'll talk to you later.
[sighs]
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Yes, I just started working
with Zelda, but I should be
able to get some new pages
out of her by the end of the month, so.
[narrator] While friends
of his caught up on TV shows
they'd been meaning to watch,
and taught themselves
to bake bread, or roast whole chickens,
Marcus suddenly found himself overburdened
with an obscene amount of additional work.
But all of that instantly felt small
when he was once again
confronted by the pain
and weight of the inhumanity in the world.
[man in video] Check his pulse!
Check his pulse.
Charles, check his pulse.
Check his pulse, bro.
Bro, check his pulse.
Bro! Bro! Bro! He's cold here.
[cell phone vibrates]
[cell phone vibrating]
- Hi.
- [Mia] Hi.
How are you?
I'm not good.
[Mia sighs]
Me either.
I didn't think I'd hear from you again.
I know, I shut you out,
and I acted totally crazy.
Yeah, you think?
Can I can I tell you what happened?
Uh
- Okay.
- Okay, I was in a dark place
and I didn't know what else to do.
When I went back to Maryland
to help my mom,
I slept with the TaskRabbit
who moved my dad's piano
into the storage unit, and
Are you fucking kidding me?
I I am so sorry.
And I wanted to tell you
as soon as I came home,
- but I just I couldn't.
- All right.
[chuckles] All right.
I mean, you know all that
really fucked me up, right?
I'm so sorry.
Like, forget the fact
that you fucked a guy.
How about the surprise birthday party
that I threw for you?
Like an asshole.
[Mia sighs]
Yeah.
Did you, um
- Did you ever get my voicemail?
- Yeah.
- That was
- Well, yeah,
I'd eaten a shitload
of mushroom chocolates, so
Marcus, I'd love to see you
so I can say sorry in person.
Truthfully, Mia,
I think I'm all set.
I I don't think
I can bear to hear more.
[sighs] Okay.
I get it.
Bye, Mia.
[sighs]
[reporter] We're right behind
the police line.
We're seeing now
more demonstrators come to the front.
They seem like they're antsy, Chris.
- Like they're ready to charge.
- [phone dings]
This is not a good look.
Not a good sign here for these officers
on the other side of it.
Certainly not for the demonstrators
who are coming towards us.
[sighs]
[Josh] When does when does a
when does a protest turn into a riot?
- [woman] Exactly.
- Hello?
Marcus, buddy. How are you?
Hey, man. I'm fine. Hanging in there.
That's good. That's good.
That video
it made me sick.
- Yeah.
- I deleted my black square
as soon as I realized it was bad.
But you're doing okay?
I'm fine. Thanks.
[Josh clears throat]
So obviously,
Sutton Court's gonna put out a statement
about all this, and Marcus, of course,
I wanted to run it by you first.
You wanted to run
Sutton Court's statement by me?
Well, I think it's important
that we show solidarity
with the BLM movement.
Why am I the one that has to vet it?
No, no, yeah, I mean, you definitely
you don't have to do anything.
I just wanted to give you
the opportunity
Okay, so you want me to sign off
on your little corporate PR statement
after you fucking furloughed
everyone but us,
and then dumped me with all the work?
Marcus, the furlough is temporary.
But what isn't temporary
is our commitment to understanding
and supporting the Black community.
Are you reading
the fucking statement right now?
- Do you not like it?
- No!
No, I don't fucking like it.
Are you Are you kidding me?
[laughs]
You do not support the Black community.
You don't.
I bring you Black writers with good,
and I mean really good manuscripts,
and automatically, man, you're just like,
"I don't get it."
But what really sets me off
is that I don't think
you even actually care to.
I brought you Trae Lang's book.
I could barely get you to read the thing.
But now, now, and this is
the whitest shit ever,
now that it's a bestseller,
you have the poster
hanging up in your fucking office,
and you have the gall to ask me,
the only Black dude you kinda know,
to rubber stamp your little
bullshit corporate PR statement
so you look good?
Bro!
Hey, man, you know what?
Fuck Sutton Court.
Fuck all this this
Johnny-come-lately bullshit,
and Josh,
fuck you, too!
Fuck you. I fucking quit.
[reporter] They're very deep going back
towards central Centennial Olympic Park.
[sputters] I feel as though I just
I believe I just heard
what I thought was a taser deployed.
I don't see anyone, though, that is
[gasps]
[breathing heavily]
[exhales]
[sighs]
[minister] You may now kiss your bride.
[guests applauding]
Whoo!
I knew Jaleesa was the one.
That's right. Don't forget it.
Oh, never. Never, never.
[Jaleesa] Thank you so much for coming.
Yo.
We doing the
We might as well. Bring it in.
I'm so happy for you, sis.
Hey, congrats, Jaleesa. This is crazy.
- I know.
- I know.
I used to hate this bitch.
- Oh, don't you start.
- [laughs]
I'ma make a round.
Ooh.
- How 'bout that?
- How 'bout that?
[Marcus sighs]
Mom and Dad are sad they missed this.
I know. I said they'll be my first stop
once the vaccine come out.
Dad's talking about not getting it.
What is it about old Black people?
They make everything
a Tuskegee experiment.
- [laughs]
- That's your daddy.
- But it was messed up though.
- It was. It was.
Damn, this is one
of the best days of my life.
I'm so happy for you, sis.
[chuckles]
You're getting me all teary-eyed.
Let me get back to my girl.
- All right.
- All right.
[narrator] Having witnessed
his imperfect sister
find happiness in an imperfect world
with an imperfect partner,
Marcus' mind went back to Mia.
[line ringing]
- [Mia] Hello?
- Hey, Mia.
You really find out
who you are during a pandemic.
I mean, I'm that bitch that hoard N95s.
- I'll say it. I don't give a shit.
- I knew it!
[laughs]
Old Billy Zane in the Titanic ass
throwing old people off the life raft.
And without a doubt,
you would have been one of the first
- I'd thrown off, too.
- What?
I mean, no kids.
No skills. Too skinny to eat.
You're like one giant muscle.
- Who wants that?
- Okay.
- The muscle's where the good meat is.
- [laughs]
- Is it though?
- Yeah, yeah.
Y'all could eat a fool if y'all needed to.
So,
uh
TaskRabbit.
I know. [chuckles nervously]
I know.
That whole thing, I
My mom's bipolar.
And fuck, at the time,
I was just really was
embarrassed about it.
And then the shit with my dad
got so crazy,
and, uh, I don't know,
I just felt like
you were just seeing all the bad stuff,
and, um,
I couldn't deal with it.
Thank you for telling me that.
I mean, don't be too impressed.
That took, like, ten months of therapy.
And that shit was all out of network.
So thank you for listening.
You didn't have to.
I go this way.
Yeah. I'm that way.
It was really nice seeing you.
Yeah, it was good to see you, too.
See you, Marcus.
See you, Mia.
[line rings]
[chuckles]
- What, did I forget something?
- Yeah, um
Can you just come back here for a sec?
- You come over here.
- All right, fine.
Look, why don't we just,
like, meet halfway?
- Okay.
- All right.
Okay. Uh
Look, man. Fuck. Um
I just want you to know something.
All right?
We've been through a lot.
You know? Like, this
- Yeah.
- whole thing.
- It's been
- Intense.
- A fucking saga.
- Yeah.
And I just want to let you know
that I'm so proud of you, Mia,
for going to therapy
and for working on yourself
while dealing with
this shit with your parents.
And, I mean, like, I can only imagine
how that must have been.
I know that you felt alone
and that's why you blew shit up
the way that you did,
but I wish you had told me
what was going on.
Not that I could have fixed it.
I know that, but I just
I just want to be there for you.
I always want to be there for you.
Even when you're being an asshole,
but I don't want you to be anything
other than what you are,
because that's who I love.
Okay. That's a lot. This is a lot.
Yeah, I know. I know.
Let's do it.
[Kim Jung Mi's "Haenim" playing]
You ready for some champagne?
[chuckles] It's only nine o' clock.
You right. Fuck it. Let's pop it.
That's what I'm talking about.
[narrator] Mia didn't seem
to be going anywhere.
At least for now.
Marcus was surprised to find
that he was willing
to stand on the precipice of risk,
knowing that getting hurt
a second time by Mia
would be devastating,
but also knowing
that not trying would be worse.
- There you are.
- Thank you.
God, I thought that I would
want to see 2020 fucking end,
but I don't think I'm gonna make it.
- I'm tired.
- It'll end either way.
Not if we're in a time loop.
[both laugh]
You need to go to sleep.
Do you think 2021's gonna be any better?
It already is.
[crowd cheering on TV]
[crowd] Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five, four,
three, two, one.
Happy New Year!
[people whooping, cheering]
["Auld Lang Syne" playing]