Survivor's Remorse (2014) s04e01 Episode Script
Fallout
1 - MAN: Missy Vaughn.
- Yes? This is Trent Vaughn, Reggie's dad.
I'm in Atlanta.
MISSY: I text you Trent's number for you to call him.
Yeah, and that was a waste of a kilobyte.
However, I am glad that you found this, because [CHUCKLES.]
I thought I had gotten rid of all of them, but I hadn't.
You call me or my wife again I will beat the living shit out of you and enjoy every second of it.
Baby, can you believe it? I am off to China.
If my grandparents could see me now! This is crazy.
I gotta find my father.
I am fed up with not knowing.
I can get that answer out of Ma.
Ma, we know my father is a deadbeat.
We don't even know who her father is.
I was raped by a bunch of boys.
Your sister was conceived that night.
I want to go after the guys who pulled the train on Ma.
You can take my plane.
JIMMY: You know where to start looking? M-CHUCK: I got an idea.
Mary Charles.
Hey Pookie, what's going on? Cam, expectations were so high.
And a first-round exit to the Celtics? The Celtics? - REGGIE: Dude, you okay? - Nope.
Think about how far we've come.
I mean, when I bought this team we used to cry this way on opening night.
Cam, any final thoughts on your disastrous playoff performance? Wish we'd scored more points than them.
Look, losing hurts, but there's a lot of seriously sad stuff going down in the world today, so let's reserve the word "disastrous" for more suitable matters.
I don't know how he does this without just popping people.
Weed.
Lots of weed.
Cam, lately many athletes weighed in on subjects that people think athletes shouldn't tackle.
I don't care.
I've said before, and I'll say it again, that a smoothie with ice cream in it is no longer a smoothie.
It's a milkshake.
[LAUGHTER.]
REPORTER: In the United States, there are over 2 million men in prison.
40% of them are black.
What's with you black people? - I'll show you.
- Oh, no, no, mm-mm, mm-mm, don't.
Listen, man, I went to the University of New Hampshire.
There were no black people.
Excuse me, Cameron.
Is there a black person alive who's ever rooted for a white tennis player against Serena Williams? Highly unlikely.
But if there was anybody, my guess would be Kanye.
No, no, no, no.
Why did he take the bait? Eh, sometimes weed works like that.
Serena is an all-time great.
She inspires me and many others.
There's nothing better than a-a black queen achieving new levels of greatness.
You say "nothing better," meaning that if a white, or Asian, or Latino, or Polish woman has such success, it couldn't be better to you because they aren't your race? Who's in the mood for a milkshake? [LAUGHTER.]
Ain't the Polacks white? Why she making it two categories? Go set your girl straight, Chen.
She's Japanese, for fuck's sake.
She's not my girl.
You're my girl.
Oh, that's my billionaire boo.
Chen, how'd you get so good at telling the difference between Chinese and Japanese? It's a small yet useful evolutionary yield from generations of bilateral hostility.
That and we look different.
Cam, your father entered the Massachusetts Department of Corrections shortly after your birth.
Why, after all these years are you trying to reconnect with him? Uh, first of all, my private life is private, unless I choose to share it on Instagram, and second, ain't it past your bedtime? No.
Why are you so interested anyways? Because I'm you, at age 11.
- [CAR HORN HONKS.]
- MAN: Man, let's go! - [HONKING CONTINUES.]
- MAN: Move it! Are we almost there? Yes, sir, moments away.
Come on, let's go.
[BUZZER SOUNDS.]
[DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Well, you've grown since the last time I saw you.
I don't remember the last time.
Oh, 24 years ago.
Two days before Christmas.
You cried a lot.
Wasn't pretty.
Why today? Lost in the playoffs.
Cried a lot.
Wasn't pretty.
Had some unexpected free time.
Sorry about the surprise.
When one's existence is monotonous, surprises are welcome.
It's that hope shit you gotta look out for.
Hope can fuck a man up.
Sorry you lost.
I thought you played well.
You watched the playoffs? We have a TV in the common room.
Sometimes your game's on, I'll watch when we're not on lockdown.
You don't need to lie.
Oh, you don't need to accuse me of lying.
Hey, it's cool that you watch the games and all that now, but I'm just saying.
You know, hearing that you do is a surprise.
Why are you here? Why today? For real.
After all this time.
That's all you got, a shrug? Oh, now we got a smirk and a shrug.
I ain't smirking.
I-I'm here because you know.
No, I don't know.
Felt it needed to be done.
Okay, now it's done.
Hey, yo, I didn't come here to agitate you.
I'm just saying, you know, my whole life I wondered if you ever thought about me and then not only did you just tell me that you'd been thinking about me, but that you'd been watching my games and following me, and hearing that you do, it's-it's a surprise.
So now you're insulting me.
I'm not meaning to.
I'm just wondering why.
Uh, why have you never reached out? Especially after hearing that you watch and follow my games.
Because I don't need anything from you.
I bet I am the only one who hasn't reached out to you, especially now that you are who you now are.
I'm sure that everyone you know and met and more have been reaching their hands out trying to get something from you, but I don't need nothing from you.
I ain't talking about material things.
I'm saying just reaching out before basketball, showing a little interest in my existence.
Do you even know when my birthday is? October 26th.
Do you know mine? I have been locked up since I was 17 years old.
That's on me.
And I know me and your mama were no Romeo and Juliet but I wrote a few times early on, and then you know, I got distracted in here.
And then, I wrote a bunch more, when you were about 11 or 12.
More than a bunch.
That's not true.
It is.
And you not writing back or reaching back out, that's true, too.
I don't resent it.
I get it.
I never got any letters.
Look, man I ain't going nowhere.
If you have some unexpected free time, holla at your mama, ask her about what I just said.
Then if you want to visit again, chances are I'll be right here.
Coffee's on me.
- [LOUD SLAM.]
- Ooh, what the fuck? - Don't tell me you dented my car.
- It seems fine.
I'll say if it's fine, asshole.
Hey, who you calling an asshole? Asshole that dented my man's car.
- Tell him, Trenay.
- I told him! World ain't here for you to be running around fucking up, asshole.
Hey, ain't no need for no disrespect, homeboy.
Ain't no need for you to be fucking up my man's car, asshole.
Get out the way.
Ooh! He done chipped the paint off the door, baby.
Hey, get the fuck outta here.
Don't tell me where to get the fuck in and out of.
I'll get the fuck wherever I damn well please.
Get out of my way so I can get out of your way.
Don't open no door on my head.
I'm gonna need you to run me some money for this door, bitch.
Lot of money.
This here is a Volvo.
A Volvo, fuckboy.
This a fucking clown car? How many people you got in here? - Just one more.
- Yo, what's popping, Lamar? What's popping, Big and Tall Darryl, is this dude gonna come up off some bread or you and me and Lady Ricky gonna put the pause on him.
Am I needed to beat someone's ass? 'Cause that's what I do.
- Okay, Darryl, listen - Uh, Big and Tall Darryl.
And that's your actual name? His full name is Big and Tall Darryl Who Will Fuck You Up, but we going with nicknames tonight.
All right, I'll tell you what.
Why don't you go and you get your ain't broke fixed? He treating you like a trick at Magic City.
Don't take that shit, Lamar.
Fuck his ass up! I'll get the money.
[BOTH GRUNTING.]
I got this one.
[PUNCHING.]
TRENAY: Wait, no, Oh, my God.
[SIGHS.]
What do you think? Should we go over and intervene? Yes, we should.
Of course we should.
Thing is, if we go over there, the situation may escalate.
Right.
Captain says I gotta complete more training before I get myself into situations that may escalate.
That's all they keep hitting nowadays, training, training, training.
Makes sense, I guess.
Ah, it totally makes sense.
Used to be they just gave you a badge and let you go make shit right.
That's the cost of progress.
Let's get out of here, huh? Yeah.
[GRUNTING.]
Well, I'm glad you did it, 'cause I was gonna do that.
TRENAY: Get back in the car.
Come on, everybody, let's go.
Let's go.
[GRUNTING.]
[KNOCKING.]
Mary Charles.
M-CHUCK: Hey, Pookie, what's going on? What's going on? It's 9:00 and you're in Boston.
Yeah.
Guess I should have called first, sent a text or something.
Hey listen, quick question.
You know anything about what happened to my mother that night on Long Island? It looks wet out there.
Come in.
You're right, I wasn't thinking.
I should have called or something first.
I'm sorry about that.
I really need you to tell me the truth.
- Not sure what you're talking about.
- See, you can't pause like, "Oh, shit," and then be all "Not sure what you're talking about," 'cause when you paused your face sorta said, "Oh shit," like you did know what I was talking about.
You didn't scrunch up your face confused, so cut the bullshit.
Ma told Cam my existence on Earth started with a sexual assault on Long Island.
What do you know about that? For what it's worth, you've yet to offer me a beverage.
I got water, coffee, Diet Dr.
Pepper.
Is the coffee made, or is it gonna be like a whole process? Diet Dr.
Pepper, please.
Is what Ma said true? You wearing a wire? If you're worried I'm wearing a wire, some shit really went down.
I didn't say that.
So what is it, some opportunistic ploy to get me to show you my tits? For God's sakes, Mary Charles! It's fine.
You tell me who raped my mother, I'll show you my tits.
- I don't want to see your tits! - I got great tits.
You're my dead friend's niece.
All grown up with a great rack.
Anyway, you like girls.
My titties don't know that.
In a vacuum, titties ain't straight or gay.
Mine are perfect.
You'd be grateful to see how perfect.
I can see titties whenever I want.
- Bullshit.
- I can.
Bullshit.
Right now, if I want to see some titties I can walk next door, tell Yolanda I'm good to go and I'd have a face full of titties in six seconds.
So she's just sitting over there on titty standby? Amongst other things she's juggling.
She's a bookkeeper.
She's active on black Twitter and volunteers at church.
My titties are better.
Titties are in the eyes of the beholder.
And no disrespect, there's no use in me looking at titties that I ain't gonna do nothing with.
Pook, my conception is a dark hood mystery with few facts.
The one clue I got is that my ma told Cam that some friends drove her to Long Island and what I know is that you were the one with the car back in the day.
I know you and Julius and my ma and my aunt partied when you were younger, so if my mother was in a car driving to Long Island from Boston, the likelihood that you were driving that car that took her to that first party is high.
But since my uncle is dead and my mother is in China I am sitting here seeking answers from you on who impregnated my mother against her will.
And even though that pregnancy resulted in me I am gonna find them and I am gonna go full fucking Munich on them, but I need to know where to start.
Munich.
You talking about the Spielberg movie where the dudes chase down the other dudes - that killed the Israeli Olympians? - Yes.
Violent flick.
Call your ma.
- For what? - I don't know.
Ask her.
Ma's in Shanghai, and she told me never to bring this up again.
So why aren't you listening to her? CAMILLE: Missy, you can't be taping old photos on punching bags.
You're gonna make a difficult situation more difficult, and you're gonna make your husband difficult.
Mom.
[STAMMERING.]
I'm just saying.
MISSY: It's not that Reggie is difficult.
It's just that life can be.
One's past can be, and more for him than me.
Well, the burden is on each individual to lead a worthy life regardless of pedigree.
Please go to another room.
I know Reggie hurts, but what's difficult is that he won't let me in to help.
He tells me I don't understand, because I got great parents.
CAMILLE: Now, I agree.
You've got great parents.
But this is what happens when the genesis of a marriage is rebellion.
Love was the genesis.
Pursuing what one believes is love despite one's instincts is rebellion.
My instincts are spotless.
Opposites attract, but they also repel.
I have breakfast with the Speaker of the House in six hours.
Mom, I married Reggie because I love him, not because he wasn't the kind of man you expected me to marry.
Being in love and having incredibly bad ideas are not mutually exclusive - SAMUEL: I heard that.
- CAMILLE: but the following is indisputable.
Any woman who thinks she possesses the antidote to fix a man who was essentially constructed in an abusive and rotten environment is a woman who will one day find herself calling her mother wondering what to do when that man unravels.
I just wanted you to listen.
CAMILLE: Well, I listened.
Now I'm talking.
No, you were talking before you were listening, and you weren't even listening for that long.
I think you know better than me that this phone call is about preemptively preparing us both for another phone call in the future.
I just want you to know that, when that phone call comes, your father and I will welcome you home with open arms.
Sweetheart, you and Reg are gonna be fine.
We love you.
Keep us posted.
[BEEPING.]
Samuel Lawrence Jordan, what did you just do? I just saved you from yourself.
Or at least I tried to.
Now go downstairs and call her back, and apologize for saying just a little too much.
And don't give me that look like a man can't be right about such things, because this man is, and you know I am.
And I love you, and you know that too.
Well, I just don't appreciate your tone.
Then you understood it perfectly.
[BUBBLING.]
Oh, oh.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
[PHONE RINGING.]
- Mary Charles.
- Hey, Ma.
How goes it in Shanghai? CASSIE: I just clogged the toilet in Chen's parents' house so I'm ankle deep in my own shit and piss right now, so not so good.
I'm sorry.
By the way, you're on speaker.
I'm up in Boston.
CASSIE: Boston? What the fuck for? - Visiting Pookie.
- Hey, Cass.
Hey, Pookie.
How you doing? Sorry, I'm just Just looking for a plunger.
Don't the Chinese ruling class have servants they rule over and make them clean up shit like that? I am not asking no servant to do this.
I'm keeping this shit private, once I can flush it.
M-CHUCK: All right, Ma, we'll let you go.
Tell Chen we said hey, but before you go, would you give Pookie the all-clear to tell me what he knows about that night, you know, in Long Island with the thing? The thing I said very, very clearly, that I never wanted to talk about again? Take me off speaker.
Okay, done.
CASSIE: I told Cam that the last time that I was gonna talk about the thing was in the driveway.
And then you call to talk to me about the thing, and although I did not want to, I confirmed that it was true, and then I told you that I did not want to talk about the thing anymore.
And then you said, "I understand, Ma.
" But yet here I am, on the other side of the world, swamped in a cloggy broth of my own fucking piss and shit, talking about the fucking thing I told you I didn't want I didn't want to talk about again.
I'm sorry, it's just that Pookie won't tell me CASSIE: Put me back on speaker.
All right.
- Pookie.
- Yes, Cass.
Can you please tell Spinster for Hire the little you do know, and then shut the fuck back up.
- Yes, Cass.
- CASSIE: Thank you.
I got a new life, okay? I got a great new life.
And I don't need no old bad life shit fucking with my current noteworthy happiness.
You guys are fucking with my Zen.
Sometimes I think that when life forces you to confront your past, there can be joy and discovery in the knowing, even if the knowing is painful.
That's the way life works.
Okay.
Mary Charles, um, the way life works is, sometimes shit happens to you, and you just gotta adapt.
You were curious about why I never told you who your father was.
Now you know why, and you're about to know some more.
There are things that Pookie knows that I don't know, but when he tells you, you'll either adapt, or not.
Baby, I don't want to know any more than what I already know, and I damn sure don't want anybody else knowing my business, Mary Charles.
This is not just your business.
It's my business.
And I am not here on Earth to be pitied.
I'm doing great.
I appreciate you, Ma.
I love you, baby.
- I'll be home soon.
- M-CHUCK: Okay.
So you were about to say? You probably got a concussion.
Want me to call Missy? Hey, I told you about speaking to my wife.
You keep her name out of your mouth, and her number out of your phone.
I can call you an ambulance.
I don't need to call your wife.
I can call my own wife or my own ambulance, if I needed my wife or an ambulance, but I don't.
Fuck, I should have never came to see you.
Reggie, you're bleeding.
You're hurt.
You get in that car, you swerve, you get pulled over, something happens, you got a lot to lose on the car ride home.
Listen, if it's the last useful thing I ever say, please let me call you an Uber or a taxi, but don't drive this car in the condition you're in.
You lying about being off the booze? Five years.
My love, rise and shine.
Mother had the servants make some American coffee.
Aw, Mama Chen.
She's so thoughtful.
Mother and Father are out.
Let's retire to my teenage bedroom.
I've never had sex in there with anyone else but myself.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Ooh! My son! My shining light.
Hey, Ma.
Ma I just saw Rodney.
Rodney who? Rodney Barker.
I'm in Boston.
Oh.
Oh, with your sister? - She's in Boston.
- What's M-Chuck doing in Boston? Putting me in a bad mood.
Chen, can you excuse me for a minute, baby? I'm gonna go shower.
Meet me.
Oh, don't eat the white spongy stuff.
Stick to the duck.
The duck is the stuff that looks like ham.
Okay.
What's up with you two mopey kids placing so much importance on who got me pregnant? Well, in M-Chuck's case, she still doesn't know exactly who that is.
- CASSIE: Exactly don't matter.
- My case, Rodney's half of me.
Oh, no, no, no.
Hell, no.
He ain't fucking half of you.
If he had half your ass growing inside of his belly, then he pushed you through the tip of his dick, then maybe I would give him half the credit for having half of you.
But no, the mother has the egg.
Learn your science.
I know science, Ma.
Well, then you would know that I hatched the egg that turned into you, okay? You came from my egg.
Mine! The shell, the white part, the yolk, mine.
That convict's contribution was nothing more than the paprika shit they sprinkle on deviled eggs.
Don't be making that motherfucker into the yolk.
Ma, that ain't how DNA works.
Half the genetic material comes from you, and then the other half comes from him.
Read the Internet.
I still got your DNA floating around inside of me.
Rodney doesn't even have the powdered prison eggs that he ate this morning in his ass.
Shit! Oh, man, you kids! Look, [STAMMERING.]
you got all this money now, and you're distracted with this trivial bullshit! - [MURMURING.]
- Trivial.
So how was your visit with your dear old Pops? He said he wrote me letters when I was 11.
Did he? He may have.
I can't recall.
I was too busy raising you and your sister to be the overly-inquisitive nosy-ass little shits you turned into.
Okay, so he wasn't a total deadbeat.
Oh, God, he's a convict.
Stop trying to make him into something that he's not just because you're sad that you lost in the playoffs! Look, baby, he was a boy that I met at a fair.
And that I had sex with nine times, many, many summers ago.
You want to have a chit-chat with him? Go ahead.
Have at it.
Pen-pal it out.
Matter of fact, why don't you go put some money on his books or maybe toss a ball in the prison play yard.
But don't you dare call me here all the way in China trying to blame me for some shit that I did many, many years ago when all I was trying to do was make shitty ends meet.
You know what, if you are done judging me, I'm gonna go take the new vagina that you bought me, and I'm gonna go have sex with my billionaire boyfriend in his teenage bedroom.
There were three of them.
Two brothers and their cousin.
15, 16 years old.
Your uncle went to find her the next morning, he found her walking.
She had a lot of bruises, and a lot of scrapes.
She had rope burns on her wrists.
What the fuck? How did they get away with it? They didn't.
[PHONE BUZZING.]
Hey, Ma.
He did write you.
What? CASSIE: He did write you.
Why didn't you ever tell me? Because you were the type of kid who would commit a crime if you thought it would allow you to live with him in prison.
Did you save any of them? CASSIE: For a time.
At the apartment on Washington and Reed.
You don't remember us getting evicted? Who moved in there? Like, why wouldn't they have forwarded the mail? Would you stop applying rich man logic to the ghetto? I mean, have you forgotten about where we come from? We got evicted in the middle of a fucking blizzard.
I'm sorry, baby.
I mean, he did write you, for a time.
You were 12, but almost nothing up until then.
But you never told me he did.
Cam, I wasn't who I am now.
You weren't who you now are, and he is He's where he is.
And that's all I can say, baby.
That, and that I-I'm sorry that you're hurting.
I'm sorry if you feel that this is part of the reason why you're hurting.
I'm sorry for not being more of a hoarder who hoards shit from 15 years ago or who can't remember to grab the shit that she was hiding from you because she got evicted during a motherfucking blizzard.
And there weren't that many, like 10 or 20 or something.
Look, you are a man now.
I can't tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing, or who you should or shouldn't be visiting.
But I raised you, son.
And it wasn't easy.
I know, Ma.
CASSIE: Well, it's good to be reminded, even for a famous man.
I raised you.
I made sacrifices.
Your grandmother helped me before she died.
My sister helped me before she died.
My brother helped me before he died.
That's how hard a job it is raising a kid.
People die from doing it! - So don't forget them.
- I won't.
I don't.
CASSIE: Good.
Go visit your grandmother's grave.
Go visit your aunt's grave.
Put some flowers there.
They are the ones who did a bunch, not Rodney.
The only shit he did was the shit that put him where he is now.
Don't stay up there for long.
We've been all good since we left Boston.
Boston is in the past.
Don't bring your past into your right now.
Okay, baby? - Yep.
- CASSIE: I love you.
Be good.
And when you get back to Atlanta, you and your sister need to cut it with the curiosity 'cause that shit kills more than cats.
Bye, baby.
I want to see proof.
Three gravestones in Long Island.
Be a fun trip long as one of us don't get gang raped.
We won't get there till 2:00, 3:00 in the morning.
Pook, I waited my entire life for some closure.
Gas up the car.
I got the keys.
Those are my mom's.
These are mine.
It's gonna take a bit of work - MAN: Right this way, sir.
- Oh ho, work Now that you're here Whoa ho, work MISSY: Hello? Missy, it's Trent Vaughn.
But I think you should know That I I think this will work Ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh Ooh ooh It's gonna take a little time But with you by my side I won't let go Till I've got what's mine 'Cause people come and go And you should know
- Yes? This is Trent Vaughn, Reggie's dad.
I'm in Atlanta.
MISSY: I text you Trent's number for you to call him.
Yeah, and that was a waste of a kilobyte.
However, I am glad that you found this, because [CHUCKLES.]
I thought I had gotten rid of all of them, but I hadn't.
You call me or my wife again I will beat the living shit out of you and enjoy every second of it.
Baby, can you believe it? I am off to China.
If my grandparents could see me now! This is crazy.
I gotta find my father.
I am fed up with not knowing.
I can get that answer out of Ma.
Ma, we know my father is a deadbeat.
We don't even know who her father is.
I was raped by a bunch of boys.
Your sister was conceived that night.
I want to go after the guys who pulled the train on Ma.
You can take my plane.
JIMMY: You know where to start looking? M-CHUCK: I got an idea.
Mary Charles.
Hey Pookie, what's going on? Cam, expectations were so high.
And a first-round exit to the Celtics? The Celtics? - REGGIE: Dude, you okay? - Nope.
Think about how far we've come.
I mean, when I bought this team we used to cry this way on opening night.
Cam, any final thoughts on your disastrous playoff performance? Wish we'd scored more points than them.
Look, losing hurts, but there's a lot of seriously sad stuff going down in the world today, so let's reserve the word "disastrous" for more suitable matters.
I don't know how he does this without just popping people.
Weed.
Lots of weed.
Cam, lately many athletes weighed in on subjects that people think athletes shouldn't tackle.
I don't care.
I've said before, and I'll say it again, that a smoothie with ice cream in it is no longer a smoothie.
It's a milkshake.
[LAUGHTER.]
REPORTER: In the United States, there are over 2 million men in prison.
40% of them are black.
What's with you black people? - I'll show you.
- Oh, no, no, mm-mm, mm-mm, don't.
Listen, man, I went to the University of New Hampshire.
There were no black people.
Excuse me, Cameron.
Is there a black person alive who's ever rooted for a white tennis player against Serena Williams? Highly unlikely.
But if there was anybody, my guess would be Kanye.
No, no, no, no.
Why did he take the bait? Eh, sometimes weed works like that.
Serena is an all-time great.
She inspires me and many others.
There's nothing better than a-a black queen achieving new levels of greatness.
You say "nothing better," meaning that if a white, or Asian, or Latino, or Polish woman has such success, it couldn't be better to you because they aren't your race? Who's in the mood for a milkshake? [LAUGHTER.]
Ain't the Polacks white? Why she making it two categories? Go set your girl straight, Chen.
She's Japanese, for fuck's sake.
She's not my girl.
You're my girl.
Oh, that's my billionaire boo.
Chen, how'd you get so good at telling the difference between Chinese and Japanese? It's a small yet useful evolutionary yield from generations of bilateral hostility.
That and we look different.
Cam, your father entered the Massachusetts Department of Corrections shortly after your birth.
Why, after all these years are you trying to reconnect with him? Uh, first of all, my private life is private, unless I choose to share it on Instagram, and second, ain't it past your bedtime? No.
Why are you so interested anyways? Because I'm you, at age 11.
- [CAR HORN HONKS.]
- MAN: Man, let's go! - [HONKING CONTINUES.]
- MAN: Move it! Are we almost there? Yes, sir, moments away.
Come on, let's go.
[BUZZER SOUNDS.]
[DOOR OPENS.]
[DOOR CLOSES.]
Well, you've grown since the last time I saw you.
I don't remember the last time.
Oh, 24 years ago.
Two days before Christmas.
You cried a lot.
Wasn't pretty.
Why today? Lost in the playoffs.
Cried a lot.
Wasn't pretty.
Had some unexpected free time.
Sorry about the surprise.
When one's existence is monotonous, surprises are welcome.
It's that hope shit you gotta look out for.
Hope can fuck a man up.
Sorry you lost.
I thought you played well.
You watched the playoffs? We have a TV in the common room.
Sometimes your game's on, I'll watch when we're not on lockdown.
You don't need to lie.
Oh, you don't need to accuse me of lying.
Hey, it's cool that you watch the games and all that now, but I'm just saying.
You know, hearing that you do is a surprise.
Why are you here? Why today? For real.
After all this time.
That's all you got, a shrug? Oh, now we got a smirk and a shrug.
I ain't smirking.
I-I'm here because you know.
No, I don't know.
Felt it needed to be done.
Okay, now it's done.
Hey, yo, I didn't come here to agitate you.
I'm just saying, you know, my whole life I wondered if you ever thought about me and then not only did you just tell me that you'd been thinking about me, but that you'd been watching my games and following me, and hearing that you do, it's-it's a surprise.
So now you're insulting me.
I'm not meaning to.
I'm just wondering why.
Uh, why have you never reached out? Especially after hearing that you watch and follow my games.
Because I don't need anything from you.
I bet I am the only one who hasn't reached out to you, especially now that you are who you now are.
I'm sure that everyone you know and met and more have been reaching their hands out trying to get something from you, but I don't need nothing from you.
I ain't talking about material things.
I'm saying just reaching out before basketball, showing a little interest in my existence.
Do you even know when my birthday is? October 26th.
Do you know mine? I have been locked up since I was 17 years old.
That's on me.
And I know me and your mama were no Romeo and Juliet but I wrote a few times early on, and then you know, I got distracted in here.
And then, I wrote a bunch more, when you were about 11 or 12.
More than a bunch.
That's not true.
It is.
And you not writing back or reaching back out, that's true, too.
I don't resent it.
I get it.
I never got any letters.
Look, man I ain't going nowhere.
If you have some unexpected free time, holla at your mama, ask her about what I just said.
Then if you want to visit again, chances are I'll be right here.
Coffee's on me.
- [LOUD SLAM.]
- Ooh, what the fuck? - Don't tell me you dented my car.
- It seems fine.
I'll say if it's fine, asshole.
Hey, who you calling an asshole? Asshole that dented my man's car.
- Tell him, Trenay.
- I told him! World ain't here for you to be running around fucking up, asshole.
Hey, ain't no need for no disrespect, homeboy.
Ain't no need for you to be fucking up my man's car, asshole.
Get out the way.
Ooh! He done chipped the paint off the door, baby.
Hey, get the fuck outta here.
Don't tell me where to get the fuck in and out of.
I'll get the fuck wherever I damn well please.
Get out of my way so I can get out of your way.
Don't open no door on my head.
I'm gonna need you to run me some money for this door, bitch.
Lot of money.
This here is a Volvo.
A Volvo, fuckboy.
This a fucking clown car? How many people you got in here? - Just one more.
- Yo, what's popping, Lamar? What's popping, Big and Tall Darryl, is this dude gonna come up off some bread or you and me and Lady Ricky gonna put the pause on him.
Am I needed to beat someone's ass? 'Cause that's what I do.
- Okay, Darryl, listen - Uh, Big and Tall Darryl.
And that's your actual name? His full name is Big and Tall Darryl Who Will Fuck You Up, but we going with nicknames tonight.
All right, I'll tell you what.
Why don't you go and you get your ain't broke fixed? He treating you like a trick at Magic City.
Don't take that shit, Lamar.
Fuck his ass up! I'll get the money.
[BOTH GRUNTING.]
I got this one.
[PUNCHING.]
TRENAY: Wait, no, Oh, my God.
[SIGHS.]
What do you think? Should we go over and intervene? Yes, we should.
Of course we should.
Thing is, if we go over there, the situation may escalate.
Right.
Captain says I gotta complete more training before I get myself into situations that may escalate.
That's all they keep hitting nowadays, training, training, training.
Makes sense, I guess.
Ah, it totally makes sense.
Used to be they just gave you a badge and let you go make shit right.
That's the cost of progress.
Let's get out of here, huh? Yeah.
[GRUNTING.]
Well, I'm glad you did it, 'cause I was gonna do that.
TRENAY: Get back in the car.
Come on, everybody, let's go.
Let's go.
[GRUNTING.]
[KNOCKING.]
Mary Charles.
M-CHUCK: Hey, Pookie, what's going on? What's going on? It's 9:00 and you're in Boston.
Yeah.
Guess I should have called first, sent a text or something.
Hey listen, quick question.
You know anything about what happened to my mother that night on Long Island? It looks wet out there.
Come in.
You're right, I wasn't thinking.
I should have called or something first.
I'm sorry about that.
I really need you to tell me the truth.
- Not sure what you're talking about.
- See, you can't pause like, "Oh, shit," and then be all "Not sure what you're talking about," 'cause when you paused your face sorta said, "Oh shit," like you did know what I was talking about.
You didn't scrunch up your face confused, so cut the bullshit.
Ma told Cam my existence on Earth started with a sexual assault on Long Island.
What do you know about that? For what it's worth, you've yet to offer me a beverage.
I got water, coffee, Diet Dr.
Pepper.
Is the coffee made, or is it gonna be like a whole process? Diet Dr.
Pepper, please.
Is what Ma said true? You wearing a wire? If you're worried I'm wearing a wire, some shit really went down.
I didn't say that.
So what is it, some opportunistic ploy to get me to show you my tits? For God's sakes, Mary Charles! It's fine.
You tell me who raped my mother, I'll show you my tits.
- I don't want to see your tits! - I got great tits.
You're my dead friend's niece.
All grown up with a great rack.
Anyway, you like girls.
My titties don't know that.
In a vacuum, titties ain't straight or gay.
Mine are perfect.
You'd be grateful to see how perfect.
I can see titties whenever I want.
- Bullshit.
- I can.
Bullshit.
Right now, if I want to see some titties I can walk next door, tell Yolanda I'm good to go and I'd have a face full of titties in six seconds.
So she's just sitting over there on titty standby? Amongst other things she's juggling.
She's a bookkeeper.
She's active on black Twitter and volunteers at church.
My titties are better.
Titties are in the eyes of the beholder.
And no disrespect, there's no use in me looking at titties that I ain't gonna do nothing with.
Pook, my conception is a dark hood mystery with few facts.
The one clue I got is that my ma told Cam that some friends drove her to Long Island and what I know is that you were the one with the car back in the day.
I know you and Julius and my ma and my aunt partied when you were younger, so if my mother was in a car driving to Long Island from Boston, the likelihood that you were driving that car that took her to that first party is high.
But since my uncle is dead and my mother is in China I am sitting here seeking answers from you on who impregnated my mother against her will.
And even though that pregnancy resulted in me I am gonna find them and I am gonna go full fucking Munich on them, but I need to know where to start.
Munich.
You talking about the Spielberg movie where the dudes chase down the other dudes - that killed the Israeli Olympians? - Yes.
Violent flick.
Call your ma.
- For what? - I don't know.
Ask her.
Ma's in Shanghai, and she told me never to bring this up again.
So why aren't you listening to her? CAMILLE: Missy, you can't be taping old photos on punching bags.
You're gonna make a difficult situation more difficult, and you're gonna make your husband difficult.
Mom.
[STAMMERING.]
I'm just saying.
MISSY: It's not that Reggie is difficult.
It's just that life can be.
One's past can be, and more for him than me.
Well, the burden is on each individual to lead a worthy life regardless of pedigree.
Please go to another room.
I know Reggie hurts, but what's difficult is that he won't let me in to help.
He tells me I don't understand, because I got great parents.
CAMILLE: Now, I agree.
You've got great parents.
But this is what happens when the genesis of a marriage is rebellion.
Love was the genesis.
Pursuing what one believes is love despite one's instincts is rebellion.
My instincts are spotless.
Opposites attract, but they also repel.
I have breakfast with the Speaker of the House in six hours.
Mom, I married Reggie because I love him, not because he wasn't the kind of man you expected me to marry.
Being in love and having incredibly bad ideas are not mutually exclusive - SAMUEL: I heard that.
- CAMILLE: but the following is indisputable.
Any woman who thinks she possesses the antidote to fix a man who was essentially constructed in an abusive and rotten environment is a woman who will one day find herself calling her mother wondering what to do when that man unravels.
I just wanted you to listen.
CAMILLE: Well, I listened.
Now I'm talking.
No, you were talking before you were listening, and you weren't even listening for that long.
I think you know better than me that this phone call is about preemptively preparing us both for another phone call in the future.
I just want you to know that, when that phone call comes, your father and I will welcome you home with open arms.
Sweetheart, you and Reg are gonna be fine.
We love you.
Keep us posted.
[BEEPING.]
Samuel Lawrence Jordan, what did you just do? I just saved you from yourself.
Or at least I tried to.
Now go downstairs and call her back, and apologize for saying just a little too much.
And don't give me that look like a man can't be right about such things, because this man is, and you know I am.
And I love you, and you know that too.
Well, I just don't appreciate your tone.
Then you understood it perfectly.
[BUBBLING.]
Oh, oh.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
[PHONE RINGING.]
- Mary Charles.
- Hey, Ma.
How goes it in Shanghai? CASSIE: I just clogged the toilet in Chen's parents' house so I'm ankle deep in my own shit and piss right now, so not so good.
I'm sorry.
By the way, you're on speaker.
I'm up in Boston.
CASSIE: Boston? What the fuck for? - Visiting Pookie.
- Hey, Cass.
Hey, Pookie.
How you doing? Sorry, I'm just Just looking for a plunger.
Don't the Chinese ruling class have servants they rule over and make them clean up shit like that? I am not asking no servant to do this.
I'm keeping this shit private, once I can flush it.
M-CHUCK: All right, Ma, we'll let you go.
Tell Chen we said hey, but before you go, would you give Pookie the all-clear to tell me what he knows about that night, you know, in Long Island with the thing? The thing I said very, very clearly, that I never wanted to talk about again? Take me off speaker.
Okay, done.
CASSIE: I told Cam that the last time that I was gonna talk about the thing was in the driveway.
And then you call to talk to me about the thing, and although I did not want to, I confirmed that it was true, and then I told you that I did not want to talk about the thing anymore.
And then you said, "I understand, Ma.
" But yet here I am, on the other side of the world, swamped in a cloggy broth of my own fucking piss and shit, talking about the fucking thing I told you I didn't want I didn't want to talk about again.
I'm sorry, it's just that Pookie won't tell me CASSIE: Put me back on speaker.
All right.
- Pookie.
- Yes, Cass.
Can you please tell Spinster for Hire the little you do know, and then shut the fuck back up.
- Yes, Cass.
- CASSIE: Thank you.
I got a new life, okay? I got a great new life.
And I don't need no old bad life shit fucking with my current noteworthy happiness.
You guys are fucking with my Zen.
Sometimes I think that when life forces you to confront your past, there can be joy and discovery in the knowing, even if the knowing is painful.
That's the way life works.
Okay.
Mary Charles, um, the way life works is, sometimes shit happens to you, and you just gotta adapt.
You were curious about why I never told you who your father was.
Now you know why, and you're about to know some more.
There are things that Pookie knows that I don't know, but when he tells you, you'll either adapt, or not.
Baby, I don't want to know any more than what I already know, and I damn sure don't want anybody else knowing my business, Mary Charles.
This is not just your business.
It's my business.
And I am not here on Earth to be pitied.
I'm doing great.
I appreciate you, Ma.
I love you, baby.
- I'll be home soon.
- M-CHUCK: Okay.
So you were about to say? You probably got a concussion.
Want me to call Missy? Hey, I told you about speaking to my wife.
You keep her name out of your mouth, and her number out of your phone.
I can call you an ambulance.
I don't need to call your wife.
I can call my own wife or my own ambulance, if I needed my wife or an ambulance, but I don't.
Fuck, I should have never came to see you.
Reggie, you're bleeding.
You're hurt.
You get in that car, you swerve, you get pulled over, something happens, you got a lot to lose on the car ride home.
Listen, if it's the last useful thing I ever say, please let me call you an Uber or a taxi, but don't drive this car in the condition you're in.
You lying about being off the booze? Five years.
My love, rise and shine.
Mother had the servants make some American coffee.
Aw, Mama Chen.
She's so thoughtful.
Mother and Father are out.
Let's retire to my teenage bedroom.
I've never had sex in there with anyone else but myself.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Ooh! My son! My shining light.
Hey, Ma.
Ma I just saw Rodney.
Rodney who? Rodney Barker.
I'm in Boston.
Oh.
Oh, with your sister? - She's in Boston.
- What's M-Chuck doing in Boston? Putting me in a bad mood.
Chen, can you excuse me for a minute, baby? I'm gonna go shower.
Meet me.
Oh, don't eat the white spongy stuff.
Stick to the duck.
The duck is the stuff that looks like ham.
Okay.
What's up with you two mopey kids placing so much importance on who got me pregnant? Well, in M-Chuck's case, she still doesn't know exactly who that is.
- CASSIE: Exactly don't matter.
- My case, Rodney's half of me.
Oh, no, no, no.
Hell, no.
He ain't fucking half of you.
If he had half your ass growing inside of his belly, then he pushed you through the tip of his dick, then maybe I would give him half the credit for having half of you.
But no, the mother has the egg.
Learn your science.
I know science, Ma.
Well, then you would know that I hatched the egg that turned into you, okay? You came from my egg.
Mine! The shell, the white part, the yolk, mine.
That convict's contribution was nothing more than the paprika shit they sprinkle on deviled eggs.
Don't be making that motherfucker into the yolk.
Ma, that ain't how DNA works.
Half the genetic material comes from you, and then the other half comes from him.
Read the Internet.
I still got your DNA floating around inside of me.
Rodney doesn't even have the powdered prison eggs that he ate this morning in his ass.
Shit! Oh, man, you kids! Look, [STAMMERING.]
you got all this money now, and you're distracted with this trivial bullshit! - [MURMURING.]
- Trivial.
So how was your visit with your dear old Pops? He said he wrote me letters when I was 11.
Did he? He may have.
I can't recall.
I was too busy raising you and your sister to be the overly-inquisitive nosy-ass little shits you turned into.
Okay, so he wasn't a total deadbeat.
Oh, God, he's a convict.
Stop trying to make him into something that he's not just because you're sad that you lost in the playoffs! Look, baby, he was a boy that I met at a fair.
And that I had sex with nine times, many, many summers ago.
You want to have a chit-chat with him? Go ahead.
Have at it.
Pen-pal it out.
Matter of fact, why don't you go put some money on his books or maybe toss a ball in the prison play yard.
But don't you dare call me here all the way in China trying to blame me for some shit that I did many, many years ago when all I was trying to do was make shitty ends meet.
You know what, if you are done judging me, I'm gonna go take the new vagina that you bought me, and I'm gonna go have sex with my billionaire boyfriend in his teenage bedroom.
There were three of them.
Two brothers and their cousin.
15, 16 years old.
Your uncle went to find her the next morning, he found her walking.
She had a lot of bruises, and a lot of scrapes.
She had rope burns on her wrists.
What the fuck? How did they get away with it? They didn't.
[PHONE BUZZING.]
Hey, Ma.
He did write you.
What? CASSIE: He did write you.
Why didn't you ever tell me? Because you were the type of kid who would commit a crime if you thought it would allow you to live with him in prison.
Did you save any of them? CASSIE: For a time.
At the apartment on Washington and Reed.
You don't remember us getting evicted? Who moved in there? Like, why wouldn't they have forwarded the mail? Would you stop applying rich man logic to the ghetto? I mean, have you forgotten about where we come from? We got evicted in the middle of a fucking blizzard.
I'm sorry, baby.
I mean, he did write you, for a time.
You were 12, but almost nothing up until then.
But you never told me he did.
Cam, I wasn't who I am now.
You weren't who you now are, and he is He's where he is.
And that's all I can say, baby.
That, and that I-I'm sorry that you're hurting.
I'm sorry if you feel that this is part of the reason why you're hurting.
I'm sorry for not being more of a hoarder who hoards shit from 15 years ago or who can't remember to grab the shit that she was hiding from you because she got evicted during a motherfucking blizzard.
And there weren't that many, like 10 or 20 or something.
Look, you are a man now.
I can't tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing, or who you should or shouldn't be visiting.
But I raised you, son.
And it wasn't easy.
I know, Ma.
CASSIE: Well, it's good to be reminded, even for a famous man.
I raised you.
I made sacrifices.
Your grandmother helped me before she died.
My sister helped me before she died.
My brother helped me before he died.
That's how hard a job it is raising a kid.
People die from doing it! - So don't forget them.
- I won't.
I don't.
CASSIE: Good.
Go visit your grandmother's grave.
Go visit your aunt's grave.
Put some flowers there.
They are the ones who did a bunch, not Rodney.
The only shit he did was the shit that put him where he is now.
Don't stay up there for long.
We've been all good since we left Boston.
Boston is in the past.
Don't bring your past into your right now.
Okay, baby? - Yep.
- CASSIE: I love you.
Be good.
And when you get back to Atlanta, you and your sister need to cut it with the curiosity 'cause that shit kills more than cats.
Bye, baby.
I want to see proof.
Three gravestones in Long Island.
Be a fun trip long as one of us don't get gang raped.
We won't get there till 2:00, 3:00 in the morning.
Pook, I waited my entire life for some closure.
Gas up the car.
I got the keys.
Those are my mom's.
These are mine.
It's gonna take a bit of work - MAN: Right this way, sir.
- Oh ho, work Now that you're here Whoa ho, work MISSY: Hello? Missy, it's Trent Vaughn.
But I think you should know That I I think this will work Ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh Ooh ooh It's gonna take a little time But with you by my side I won't let go Till I've got what's mine 'Cause people come and go And you should know