Survivor's Remorse (2014) s04e09 Episode Script
Family Ties
1 - CAM: I think I really like this girl.
- You don't even know her.
- I got instincts.
- CASSIE: Well, I'm just hoping for a sign for help with my last corporal act of mercy but Mary's not talking.
You could go up to Boston and see Rodney.
Me and your mama were no Romeo and Juliet, but I wrote a few times early on.
I never got any letters.
He's a convict! Stop trying to make him into something that he's not.
Oh, Chen, thank you so much for including me on this one.
Read the prospectus.
I'll need a wire by the 23rd.
Beginning when you were 17, I welcomed with an open mind every young man you presented for approval.
I eat tapas with Ronaldo, played tennis with Cheech, introduced Marcus high and low.
But I was not going to let a husband come and go and leave you wanting for anything or paying for his life.
So? What do you think? - I think Chen is a billionaire for a reason.
- I know, right? I should probably offer Cam a piece of my piece.
Look, if it's the amount of money - you're worried about - It is not.
Good.
Because half of it's coming from me.
I'm asking my parents to open the trust.
Red beam on your head What you saying, we ain't playing I might be on the xan Make one wrong move you're dead Pop, pop, pop, taking shots to the head Taking shots to the head, taking shots to the head Taking shots to the head, gotcha coming, coming Still the same young, just rich, unh Taking shots to the head, pop, pop, pop Taking shots to the head Taking shots to the head - Yo.
- Yo.
I'll watch the car.
You see any trouble, scream.
- Yeah, will do.
- Hey, stay close.
- You'd best hope I do.
- [CHUCKLES.]
This area's a bit rough, eh? Nah, man, no rougher than where we came from.
Probably some good stories came out of these streets.
- Hoping we can tell some more.
- Yeah, yeah, all right.
What are we doing here, man? Setting the stage - for the next Dungeon Family? - [CHUCKLES.]
You laugh, but shit, Outkast - Goodie Mob.
- Sleepy Brown.
- Hey, Killer Mike.
- Ah, second generation, but sure.
- What, you schooling me now? - Ah.
All right, so what is the deal with this? The deal is this is a deal that is the kind of deal you only get word of when you know the right people.
I am still no closer to understanding what the deal is.
- I'm ramping up.
- Okay.
We know the right people, so we got a shot at this deal.
A deal to turn battered public property, like this, into a vibrant multi-use property for lofts, shops, and cafes.
- Here? - Yeah, here.
And you know, a few other spots bundled up with here.
But why here? Well, you know, unless this place is alive and well, people like, uh well, Big Dick Dwayne and Cucci B, they may never meet and express their love, a love that, it may not be as well funded as you and Allison's, but it's just as rich and passionate.
Not exactly sure what that means.
What this means, what this represents, is one of 28 parcels of disused public land that we got opportunity to buy.
Well, fucking Big Dick Dwayne and and Cucci B, right? - Okay.
- Hey, don't laugh, this is this is true love, Cam.
True fucking love.
Allison, what's that ring on your hand with that big rock? What, you won a championship or something? Mike, you are with a patient.
MIKE: 'Course I am.
Allison, Jasmine.
Jasmine, Allison.
- Allison, that ring is dope.
- Thank you.
- So, is it the left ankle or the right ankle? - It's always the right ankle.
- Oh, it's it's actually the left.
- Oh, my bad.
- But that ring, though.
-Thank you.
I know what that ring is for.
- Who gave her that ring? - You know that boy Cam? - That boy Cam be balling.
- Wait.
Cam Calloway gave you that big-ass ring? - Mike.
- You can't fool Mikey C.
Did he do something wrong? 'Cause that looks like an "I'm sorry" ring.
'Course he did.
It had to be the the girl from the strip club around the corner.
Nah, it gotta be the one from across town.
She fly, too, I ain't gonna lie.
- I ain't gonna lie.
- Wait, wait, wait.
- Did he hook up with Selena Gomez or something? - Selena Gomez? I love that girl.
Selena Gomez has absolutely nothing to do with this ring.
Okay? This is literally just good, old-fashioned love.
- So then when are you due? - I'm not pregnant.
- Is he hitting you? Is is he roughing you up? - Whoa, whoa.
- I'm just saying! - Whoa, listen.
You know me and you peoples.
Either way, ring or no ring, we peoples.
If somebody messing with you, you know I got that team.
You know I got that street team.
We're gonna leave them in the streets.
Okay, I'll go on and take you, all right? - Let me wheel you down there.
- Yeah, do that.
Look, I met a guy.
We started hanging out, we fell in love.
And that's the story you're sticking with? He asked me to marry him.
- You really sticking to that story? - That's it.
Okay, I see you, Allison.
- Okay.
- I love you.
Will you marry me? - You didn't tell me this was a school.
- Was a school.
- No longer a school.
- Why? Probably a bad school.
- That's sad.
- [CHUCKLES.]
In theory.
No, a bad school is sad.
It ain't theory, it's fact.
Like, we went to some bad schools.
It was sad.
Yeah, but then we went on to a nice Catholic high school, got on the road to success, a road that I like to continue to walk on.
But what made this a bad school? I don't know, Cam.
I don't know this school, but what I do know is that it's no longer a school.
Now it's an investment opportunity.
- Our opportunity.
- Okay.
Was it bad teachers, bad policies, bad government bad people making sure that tax dollars bought more prisons and less schools? [CHUCKLES.]
You know what? I'll research it.
- Regardless, this is no longer a school.
- Sad.
Man, this is an oil well, in plain sight ready to be soaked for profits, profits that we should partake in.
Hmm.
How? Well, we happen to be associated with a man Da Chen Bao, who's in the deal flow.
He's offered us the opportunity to join him in this particular tributary of that flow.
Developing schools into Jamba Juices and Old Navys, right? No, no, no.
By buying this land for a low price, and then selling it for a high one to developers who, yeah, they may decide to build some Jamba Juices, you know.
- Healthy smoothies for everybody.
- Feels weird.
Only because you have been conditioned to think it's weird by people who want to keep the money.
Not let a couple guys like us get that money.
And you know the only reason they got most of the money? Because they don't want guys like us to know the easy ways to make that money.
Cam, you drive the lane every night, you risk getting clotheslined by guys like Draymond Green.
You earn your money.
This is the beginning of the money you ain't got to earn.
Hey, you know how many idiots have said that before they lost a fuck-ton of money? [CHUCKLES.]
Cam, you hear more from the the idiots than you do from the guys who made a fuck-ton 'cause the guys who made a fuck-ton, they want to keep that shit quiet.
This is a place where little kids went to school.
Exactly.
Kids "went to.
" - It's no longer a school.
- They got slides.
Like, I can still hear the kids playing, man.
I can hear kids being bullied.
I can hear them being sent to detention.
Look, we can attach whatever fictional narrative we choose.
Don't make this out to be a Shangri-La.
Shangri-Las don't get shut down.
I just think that there are some kids who could still use a place like this.
Maybe, just maybe, those kids have grown up and you know what they could use right now, is a cafe, man, where they come in, they get an espresso - Man - a apple fritter.
- You know what I'm saying? - Diabetes.
What the fuck you talking about, from o one apple fritter? No, I'm you naming a whole bunch of shit that kids don't need.
- All right, well, fuck it.
They come in - I'm just saying, - and get a kale salad, Cam.
- they need a school.
They can get a kale salad, get some protein.
I don't give a shit, okay? - Hear me out.
- I'm hearing you.
What if we turn this back into a school? We can get some local politicians involved.
- This school right here? - This school.
How do you think the land got to be for sale? Politicians, Cam! Come on, baby.
There's some kids who could still use this school, Reg.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Hey, I'm just saying, the pill, widely available.
People have learned how to fuck without making kids.
Maybe this area is just making fewer kids that go to this school.
- I guess.
- You guess? Cam.
They shot episodes of "The Walking Dead" right here.
We're not the problem.
We're the solution.
- All right, man, let me think about it.
- Ah All right, well, just, think quick.
We under a bit of a deadline.
CAM: Okay, good to know.
I'll call you later.
[BEEPING.]
[LINE RINGING.]
- Hey.
- How'd it go? - Went good.
- Great.
What'd he say? - Uh, he said he's thinking about it.
- MISSY: What? Yeah, he said he's thinking about it.
- MISSY: How is that good? - Well, it's not bad yet, you know.
- Glass half full.
- MISSY: Well, what the hell is he thinking about? Whether or not he wants to invest, Missy.
- Aren't you the guy who vets things for him? - REGGIE: I am.
And aren't you the guy who then tells him what vetted shit to invest in? Hey, why are we having a conversation when we both know the answers? MISSY: Because he usually says, "Whatever you think, Reg," - but he hasn't.
- Yet.
MISSY: I thought that's why he had you, so there's no "yet" to be said.
Once you say it's to be done, it's done.
That has been the pattern, yes.
So what's changed? Apparently the pattern, Missy.
Look, I'm confident that he will do what I ask.
Well, it doesn't matter whether he says he's doing it or not.
- We're still doing it.
- REGGIE: We are.
There's a time limit on this.
Hey, what else can we say to one another - that we both already know? - You know what, I hate how much of our lives are contingent on Cam's whims.
I know, I know, I know, but this is gonna be good, with or without him.
You just get your trust fund money in hand.
MISSY: Trust, no "fund.
" Yeah, whatever, just get your piece ready, and we'll handle the rest, with or without Cam, okay? - See you at home.
- REGGIE: All right.
[BEEP.]
Cassandra Calloway? GUARD: This way.
Thank you.
[LOUD RAPPING.]
Damn.
Got a soft-ass hand.
Well, whatever you're thinking about doing with it, stop it.
I'm not here to fuel your freaky fantasies.
Well, as I recall, it was you the one that turned me on.
As I recall, I was at the spot, dancing to "Do Me.
" And singing all the words.
[CHUCKLES.]
I was good until you got to that part.
BOTH: The time was 6:00 on the Swatch watch No time to chill, got a date, can't be late Hey! The girl's gonna do me Move to the jacuzzi Ooh, that booty Smack it up, flip it, rub it down Oh, no! [BOTH CHUCKLE.]
That song, you don't know what that song does.
Oh, man.
[SIGHS.]
You know you know, I can put in a request for a family visit if you want to revisit our youth.
I think it's best to let you and Cam do what you been doing.
You know? - Mm-hmm.
- Writing, communicating.
I don't want to, um, intrude, and insinuate myself into some false family trio.
No.
That's not the type of family visit I was talking about.
Mm, mm.
No.
That's how we ended up with a son.
- Oh, he turned out all right.
- Yeah, he did.
He did.
He did.
Wish I'd have been there.
Yeah.
Me, too.
So, um, I have a question, and I'm hoping it doesn't sound like what it might sound like, but why now? Well, I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd stop by.
[BOTH CHUCKLE.]
Oh, you know how they say God is never late, He's always on time? And, um, when you and I were together we were nothing more than kids.
I know we thought that we were grown, but [CHUCKLES.]
No, the state certainly thought I was.
Yeah.
You couldn't tell us nothing.
Because of that and because of our youth, our ignorance, our strengths, our fearlessness because we were kids acting like adults, we, um we did things.
We made decisions.
And things happened and things can't unhappen.
- This is indisputable.
- [SIGHS.]
I mean, I thought I was grown.
But now when I look at Cam, and - I look at Mary Charles, it's just - Oh, man.
How is Mary Charles? She's good.
- Yeah? - She's good.
Rodney, I'm seeking my Catholic confirmation and part of that is corporal acts of mercy.
You know, practicing mercy on others, like Jesus did.
You know, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned.
[SCOFFS.]
So I am I'm just a part of your checklist for your spiritual journey? Huh.
Well if I can just be to you a good deed done, then I can be that.
I came because I wanted to see you.
I'm sorry for - moving on with life.
- No, I get it.
No, no, no, no, no.
Don't just say you get it.
I get it.
Look, I made some decisions that I thought were good decisions that may not have been.
Selfish decisions.
Will you forgive me for not making the effort to have your son know you? Mm.
Was that a yes? Yeah, yes.
Yes, you forgive me? Yes, Cassie.
Yeah, I, um Yeah, I I I forgive you.
Think you know, I did some dumb things.
Driving getaway cars.
Getting violent in a place that honors violence.
Now look at me.
It's good to look at you.
So Cam has brought me up to speed on your, um - sentence and stuff.
- [MUTTERS.]
Way too damn wise.
Well, now, it's gonna be a bit longer before I'm released back out into the wild.
- And when that happens? - I'll yes, I'll come over for dinner.
I wish, um there was more that I could do while you're in here.
I mean, I wish I could be of more help.
Really? Yeah.
Why don't you stand up, turn around, and let me see what you're working with.
Uh [LAUGHS.]
I am not gonna stand up just so you can see my ass.
What? [SCOFFS.]
Well, get me some candy.
What, you got You got quarters? I mean, you got these quarters.
- Yes and no.
- What did you bring them here for? [CHUCKLES.]
No, you said you were coming here to perform an act of mercy, man.
- Get me some candy.
- Oh, there is a strict dress code.
You're not gonna be able to see anything anyway.
One trains oneself in prison to imagine some powerful images.
Hmm? [WHISPERING.]
Go get me some candy.
Get me some candy.
Go ahead.
Get me some candy.
[MUSIC PLAYING.]
You're like a diamond Shining But he treats you like glass Yet you beg him to love you With me you don't ask If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman Here's what I'd do I'd never, no, no, stop loving you Yeah [HUMMING.]
[CHUCKLES.]
I'll be thinking about that for a very long time.
Are you sure you don't want to reconsider that family visit? - Hmm? - Stop loving you If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman [ALLISON CHUCKLING.]
I'll text Ma, M-Chuck, Reggie and Missy.
Don't you think it should just be immediate family? - It is my immediate family.
- Cassie and M-Chuck.
Your mother and your sister.
That's different from your cousin and his wife.
What's different from your cousin and his wife? We're having a an engagement- slash-meet-the-family dinner.
Oh.
What family's meeting? You and Cassie and my mom and dad.
Reggie and Missy don't make the cut? If they come, then I have to invite my cousins.
I never introduced you guys to Tanya.
[CHUCKLES.]
You've never mentioned her.
Because she's insufferable, and I don't want you to suffer.
- Mm.
- Also, when my dad tells my uncle that we had a family engagement dinner and your cousins were there and mine weren't, - it won't be good.
- Yeah, that's where our families differ.
Apparently yours values open communication and kindness whereas ours values secrecy and passive aggression, but don't worry.
Reggie and Missy will never find out from me that you shut them out, no matter what kind of ugly argument you and I get into 11 years from now.
- It's not like I got the memory of an elephant.
- No cousins.
Reggie will understand, Missy, too.
The she's a beast for protocol.
I thought we weren't telling them.
You thought that.
Why are you texting Reggie and Missy separately? Because one, stay out of my phone, and because two, I hate group texts.
No, but why text them at all? Like "I'm having a I'm having a family dinner.
Just letting you know you're not invited.
Love, Cam, your asshole cousin.
" - Yeah, I guess I didn't think that through.
- That's why I'm here.
- Call Ma.
- [LINE RINGING.]
CASSIE ON RECORDING: Hi, it's Cassie.
Leave a message.
Ma, it's me.
Uh, read your texts.
Oh, Ma doesn't like texts.
She likes voicemails.
She spent most of her life without all this technology and so I think the mere presence of a cell phone in her hand makes her feel like she's in a in a scary, unfamiliar world that is as dangerous as the one she barely escaped by the skin of her teeth, thanks to my dipshit brother here, and his freakish ability to dribble a small, inflatable piece of leather.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- Remember that any time you talk to anyone old.
They're petrified.
Y'all are nuts.
- Done.
- Not done.
- Where? - My house.
This mansion might make my folks feel intimidated.
Why? I'm sure the house you grew up in is a mansion compared to where we grew up.
We mostly grew up in one room shitholes - with a hole in the floor you shit into.
- She exaggerates.
Uh, the winter we spent in Hull? - That was for like two months.
- And where did we shit? In a hole.
But it went in a bucket.
It's not like we lived in a shit hole.
We lived in a room that surrounded it.
I didn't mean to imply that - you guys were shit - Okay, Allison, look.
We are regular people.
- Your folks should come witness that.
- Yeah, we shit in bathrooms now.
I love that you see yourself as a regular dude, but you are a superstar NBA player.
And as regular as it feels for you to be that, to regular people who are not superstars, this house is daunting.
Yeah.
Also this is the house you fuck his daughter in, so you probably want to stay far, far away.
Your parents' house? - Done.
- Cool.
So just, you know, text me.
There she is.
Thank you.
MISSY: Hi, Daddy.
I told you you didn't have to come.
SAMUEL: Oh, but I did.
You see, transactions of this nature, for the uninitiated, should be handled in person.
Remember that should you ever find yourself on the delivery end of this type of largesse, that you will want to look the recipient in the eye to see what they look like, hear first-hand how they sound, so you have some idea as to whether or not the thing you are about to do is, in fact, a good thing to do.
Then you see resolve.
I see that you're nervous.
Or better, anxious.
That's good.
Better than cocky.
I appreciate that you know you've resolved to taking a risk, rather than being foolish enough to think that you can convince me that you aren't.
I appreciate this.
The point of having had money set aside for you is so that you have the opportunity to take risks and make discoveries without betting the farm, per se.
Even if you lose every dime of this money, you will have learned something.
One thing being how easy it is to lose your money two years before it's supposed to be yours.
[CHUCKLES.]
And the other being something not yet apparent that I imagine one day you will perhaps phone me to explain.
You keep talking as if you know it won't work.
I don't know if it will or not.
I do know that it was working and growing at a reasonable, profitable safe rate over time since your birth.
I know that you've been exposed to the extraordinary sudden wealth of a professional athlete, and that may have obscured your thinking.
I also know that should this work out, you will feel smart and accomplished, and you may forget all of that anxiety you're feeling.
I want you to remember.
Is this the end of your speech? Well, you try putting a half million dollars into your child's hands and see how little you have to say about it.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Allison, will Cam be coming soon? Not if he's the same Cam Calloway that plays for Atlanta.
He said he'd be here.
Dad, what are you talking about.
According to Sportswire, Cam Calloway sank a three at the buzzer to take Atlanta into double overtime.
- Whoa! That's my baby! Nice.
- A double overtime? Yeah, they played and ended regulation in a tie score then ended the extra period in a tie score.
I don't know what time he's coming but it's not gonna be any time soon.
Well, why would you have plans in on game day, anyway? It was the only time everyone's schedules lined up.
Why didn't we do it yesterday? I mean, we were home.
Cassie, weren't you at home? CASSIE: Sitting right there, watching movies, eating ice cream.
You know, I was home last night.
All night.
Would've been a great time for a home-cooked meal.
It was home-cooked.
By our chef.
In our home.
So how come we didn't have dinner yesterday, baby girl? - That would've been perfect.
- I had to work.
You couldn't find anybody to cover for you? M-CHUCK: You know, you should talk to Cam.
He knows better than that.
You can't plan nothing on game day.
We've been having plans like that ruined for years.
Well, after you two are married, - you still plan on working? - I love my job.
I didn't go to school and study for all these years just to get married and quit.
Well, you are atypical with that! I mean, most girls marry a guy like my brother can't wait to quit.
And that's if they ever even get anything started.
Usually their job is to get knocked up as soon as humanly possible, and then negotiate about the upbringing of the baby-to-be.
Clearly you're not that type.
I I daresay you don't have a thot bone in your body.
Well, you might need one, 'cause these girls around here are serious.
I'm telling you, all these ballplayers do is get with these girls, have babies and pay child support and keep it moving.
But Cam, he's the marrying kind.
So how long y'all been married? - 30 years.
- Before the babies! - Impressive! - Not at that time.
Her mama come from a long line of fathers, - and they don't play that.
- Yeah, you guys are like a family full of unicorns.
I mean, you're working, you're cooking.
You're here.
CASSIE: Well, I hope y'all have lots of grandbabies.
I can't wait.
- We actually haven't talked about kids.
- Hey, speaking as the only other possible vessel by which Ma here is gonna get those grandbabies she's been lusting after with a vengeance, I'm kind of hoping that you'd be good for it, 'cause look, I'm not in a place in my life right now where I could even be entertaining carrying lives inside of me.
So if you could pop out, like, a niece and nephew or two or three, that'd be great.
I mean, Ma ain't the best ma.
She's getting better.
You you're getting better.
But grandma? I mean, I feel like she'd crush that.
Uh, so what you gonna do if Cam gets traded? - Traded? - Yeah, if he signs with another team.
I know what "traded" is, but why would Cam get traded? 'Cause this league is full of money-grubbing bastards who couldn't care less about where you wanna live or who you gotta drag along with you.
As long as they're making money whenever, whatever happens, happens.
I'm not saying that Atlanta is bad.
I'm just saying the one reason why we're here is this is where the money is.
M-CHUCK: I don't know if you guys know this, but Cam quite enjoys his money.
I mean, he ain't gonna say it out loud, but he does.
- I would, too.
- [LAUGHS.]
My man.
[LAUGHTER.]
Hey, wanna get a drink? Nah, I gotta get over to Allison's parents' house.
Got this engagement dinner with Ma, M-Chuck and her parents.
On a night after the game? - Don't ask.
- All right.
Squeeze driving you? - No, I got my car.
- Cool.
Yo, so, about that, uh, school thing.
- All right.
- I don't want to do it.
Ah, we ain't gotta talk about it now.
We just talked about it.
Yeah, but before you said you was gonna think about it, and then we'd talk about it.
Yeah, well, I thought about it, we talked about it, and the thinking and the talking are done.
Oh, ah double overtime loss, never a good time for business chats, so Dude, don't treat me like I'm some kid that that that can't have one feeling, disappointment over a game, and then another, not wanting to do a business deal for sound reasons, at the same time.
I'm sorry it came across that way.
Apology accepted.
- All right, well, I gotta go.
- Yeah, uh, listen, and I know we just talked about it, but for my own record-keeping purposes, why don't you want to do this? Told you why I don't want to do it.
I just I don't like the idea of us turning what was once schools into places to buy shit.
I don't want to make money like that.
It don't feel right because it ain't right.
I mean, have you looked around, man? You see how stupid this country is? - [CHUCKLES.]
- We need more schools and less nail salons, - not the other way around.
- Wait, so nail salons are the problem, not the military industrial complex? Hey, you wanna start some schools, let's start some schools.
Let's make some more money, and then we can tell people how they supposed to live.
Reg, come on, man.
You saw that neighborhood.
If they knocking down schools, they should be building up baseball fields.
- Eh, it's a dying sport.
- Okay, well, soccer fields, and whatever else.
They need to create a space for people to play more, not buy.
I don't want to be associated with it.
Chen might, but I ain't Chen.
You ain't either, man.
We're different.
We come from places like that neighborhood.
We need to honor those people and speak up for them, - and the neighborhood.
- [STAMMERS.]
I hear you.
I'm all about that, but Cam, this is a really great deal, man.
Oh, for fuck's sake, Reggie, I told you, man.
I thought about it.
I don't want to do it.
I don't think that you should do it, either.
It ain't what we wanna be.
Okay, when you say you don't think I should - That means I'm sure you shouldn't.
- And when you say you're sure Reg, are you gonna make me say it, man? I'm trying to be respectful.
I do not want you to do it.
There will be plenty of other opportunities that we will feel better about.
Just as good, man.
Watch.
I gotta go, man.
My fiancée's waiting.
- You don't even know her.
- I got instincts.
- CASSIE: Well, I'm just hoping for a sign for help with my last corporal act of mercy but Mary's not talking.
You could go up to Boston and see Rodney.
Me and your mama were no Romeo and Juliet, but I wrote a few times early on.
I never got any letters.
He's a convict! Stop trying to make him into something that he's not.
Oh, Chen, thank you so much for including me on this one.
Read the prospectus.
I'll need a wire by the 23rd.
Beginning when you were 17, I welcomed with an open mind every young man you presented for approval.
I eat tapas with Ronaldo, played tennis with Cheech, introduced Marcus high and low.
But I was not going to let a husband come and go and leave you wanting for anything or paying for his life.
So? What do you think? - I think Chen is a billionaire for a reason.
- I know, right? I should probably offer Cam a piece of my piece.
Look, if it's the amount of money - you're worried about - It is not.
Good.
Because half of it's coming from me.
I'm asking my parents to open the trust.
Red beam on your head What you saying, we ain't playing I might be on the xan Make one wrong move you're dead Pop, pop, pop, taking shots to the head Taking shots to the head, taking shots to the head Taking shots to the head, gotcha coming, coming Still the same young, just rich, unh Taking shots to the head, pop, pop, pop Taking shots to the head Taking shots to the head - Yo.
- Yo.
I'll watch the car.
You see any trouble, scream.
- Yeah, will do.
- Hey, stay close.
- You'd best hope I do.
- [CHUCKLES.]
This area's a bit rough, eh? Nah, man, no rougher than where we came from.
Probably some good stories came out of these streets.
- Hoping we can tell some more.
- Yeah, yeah, all right.
What are we doing here, man? Setting the stage - for the next Dungeon Family? - [CHUCKLES.]
You laugh, but shit, Outkast - Goodie Mob.
- Sleepy Brown.
- Hey, Killer Mike.
- Ah, second generation, but sure.
- What, you schooling me now? - Ah.
All right, so what is the deal with this? The deal is this is a deal that is the kind of deal you only get word of when you know the right people.
I am still no closer to understanding what the deal is.
- I'm ramping up.
- Okay.
We know the right people, so we got a shot at this deal.
A deal to turn battered public property, like this, into a vibrant multi-use property for lofts, shops, and cafes.
- Here? - Yeah, here.
And you know, a few other spots bundled up with here.
But why here? Well, you know, unless this place is alive and well, people like, uh well, Big Dick Dwayne and Cucci B, they may never meet and express their love, a love that, it may not be as well funded as you and Allison's, but it's just as rich and passionate.
Not exactly sure what that means.
What this means, what this represents, is one of 28 parcels of disused public land that we got opportunity to buy.
Well, fucking Big Dick Dwayne and and Cucci B, right? - Okay.
- Hey, don't laugh, this is this is true love, Cam.
True fucking love.
Allison, what's that ring on your hand with that big rock? What, you won a championship or something? Mike, you are with a patient.
MIKE: 'Course I am.
Allison, Jasmine.
Jasmine, Allison.
- Allison, that ring is dope.
- Thank you.
- So, is it the left ankle or the right ankle? - It's always the right ankle.
- Oh, it's it's actually the left.
- Oh, my bad.
- But that ring, though.
-Thank you.
I know what that ring is for.
- Who gave her that ring? - You know that boy Cam? - That boy Cam be balling.
- Wait.
Cam Calloway gave you that big-ass ring? - Mike.
- You can't fool Mikey C.
Did he do something wrong? 'Cause that looks like an "I'm sorry" ring.
'Course he did.
It had to be the the girl from the strip club around the corner.
Nah, it gotta be the one from across town.
She fly, too, I ain't gonna lie.
- I ain't gonna lie.
- Wait, wait, wait.
- Did he hook up with Selena Gomez or something? - Selena Gomez? I love that girl.
Selena Gomez has absolutely nothing to do with this ring.
Okay? This is literally just good, old-fashioned love.
- So then when are you due? - I'm not pregnant.
- Is he hitting you? Is is he roughing you up? - Whoa, whoa.
- I'm just saying! - Whoa, listen.
You know me and you peoples.
Either way, ring or no ring, we peoples.
If somebody messing with you, you know I got that team.
You know I got that street team.
We're gonna leave them in the streets.
Okay, I'll go on and take you, all right? - Let me wheel you down there.
- Yeah, do that.
Look, I met a guy.
We started hanging out, we fell in love.
And that's the story you're sticking with? He asked me to marry him.
- You really sticking to that story? - That's it.
Okay, I see you, Allison.
- Okay.
- I love you.
Will you marry me? - You didn't tell me this was a school.
- Was a school.
- No longer a school.
- Why? Probably a bad school.
- That's sad.
- [CHUCKLES.]
In theory.
No, a bad school is sad.
It ain't theory, it's fact.
Like, we went to some bad schools.
It was sad.
Yeah, but then we went on to a nice Catholic high school, got on the road to success, a road that I like to continue to walk on.
But what made this a bad school? I don't know, Cam.
I don't know this school, but what I do know is that it's no longer a school.
Now it's an investment opportunity.
- Our opportunity.
- Okay.
Was it bad teachers, bad policies, bad government bad people making sure that tax dollars bought more prisons and less schools? [CHUCKLES.]
You know what? I'll research it.
- Regardless, this is no longer a school.
- Sad.
Man, this is an oil well, in plain sight ready to be soaked for profits, profits that we should partake in.
Hmm.
How? Well, we happen to be associated with a man Da Chen Bao, who's in the deal flow.
He's offered us the opportunity to join him in this particular tributary of that flow.
Developing schools into Jamba Juices and Old Navys, right? No, no, no.
By buying this land for a low price, and then selling it for a high one to developers who, yeah, they may decide to build some Jamba Juices, you know.
- Healthy smoothies for everybody.
- Feels weird.
Only because you have been conditioned to think it's weird by people who want to keep the money.
Not let a couple guys like us get that money.
And you know the only reason they got most of the money? Because they don't want guys like us to know the easy ways to make that money.
Cam, you drive the lane every night, you risk getting clotheslined by guys like Draymond Green.
You earn your money.
This is the beginning of the money you ain't got to earn.
Hey, you know how many idiots have said that before they lost a fuck-ton of money? [CHUCKLES.]
Cam, you hear more from the the idiots than you do from the guys who made a fuck-ton 'cause the guys who made a fuck-ton, they want to keep that shit quiet.
This is a place where little kids went to school.
Exactly.
Kids "went to.
" - It's no longer a school.
- They got slides.
Like, I can still hear the kids playing, man.
I can hear kids being bullied.
I can hear them being sent to detention.
Look, we can attach whatever fictional narrative we choose.
Don't make this out to be a Shangri-La.
Shangri-Las don't get shut down.
I just think that there are some kids who could still use a place like this.
Maybe, just maybe, those kids have grown up and you know what they could use right now, is a cafe, man, where they come in, they get an espresso - Man - a apple fritter.
- You know what I'm saying? - Diabetes.
What the fuck you talking about, from o one apple fritter? No, I'm you naming a whole bunch of shit that kids don't need.
- All right, well, fuck it.
They come in - I'm just saying, - and get a kale salad, Cam.
- they need a school.
They can get a kale salad, get some protein.
I don't give a shit, okay? - Hear me out.
- I'm hearing you.
What if we turn this back into a school? We can get some local politicians involved.
- This school right here? - This school.
How do you think the land got to be for sale? Politicians, Cam! Come on, baby.
There's some kids who could still use this school, Reg.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Hey, I'm just saying, the pill, widely available.
People have learned how to fuck without making kids.
Maybe this area is just making fewer kids that go to this school.
- I guess.
- You guess? Cam.
They shot episodes of "The Walking Dead" right here.
We're not the problem.
We're the solution.
- All right, man, let me think about it.
- Ah All right, well, just, think quick.
We under a bit of a deadline.
CAM: Okay, good to know.
I'll call you later.
[BEEPING.]
[LINE RINGING.]
- Hey.
- How'd it go? - Went good.
- Great.
What'd he say? - Uh, he said he's thinking about it.
- MISSY: What? Yeah, he said he's thinking about it.
- MISSY: How is that good? - Well, it's not bad yet, you know.
- Glass half full.
- MISSY: Well, what the hell is he thinking about? Whether or not he wants to invest, Missy.
- Aren't you the guy who vets things for him? - REGGIE: I am.
And aren't you the guy who then tells him what vetted shit to invest in? Hey, why are we having a conversation when we both know the answers? MISSY: Because he usually says, "Whatever you think, Reg," - but he hasn't.
- Yet.
MISSY: I thought that's why he had you, so there's no "yet" to be said.
Once you say it's to be done, it's done.
That has been the pattern, yes.
So what's changed? Apparently the pattern, Missy.
Look, I'm confident that he will do what I ask.
Well, it doesn't matter whether he says he's doing it or not.
- We're still doing it.
- REGGIE: We are.
There's a time limit on this.
Hey, what else can we say to one another - that we both already know? - You know what, I hate how much of our lives are contingent on Cam's whims.
I know, I know, I know, but this is gonna be good, with or without him.
You just get your trust fund money in hand.
MISSY: Trust, no "fund.
" Yeah, whatever, just get your piece ready, and we'll handle the rest, with or without Cam, okay? - See you at home.
- REGGIE: All right.
[BEEP.]
Cassandra Calloway? GUARD: This way.
Thank you.
[LOUD RAPPING.]
Damn.
Got a soft-ass hand.
Well, whatever you're thinking about doing with it, stop it.
I'm not here to fuel your freaky fantasies.
Well, as I recall, it was you the one that turned me on.
As I recall, I was at the spot, dancing to "Do Me.
" And singing all the words.
[CHUCKLES.]
I was good until you got to that part.
BOTH: The time was 6:00 on the Swatch watch No time to chill, got a date, can't be late Hey! The girl's gonna do me Move to the jacuzzi Ooh, that booty Smack it up, flip it, rub it down Oh, no! [BOTH CHUCKLE.]
That song, you don't know what that song does.
Oh, man.
[SIGHS.]
You know you know, I can put in a request for a family visit if you want to revisit our youth.
I think it's best to let you and Cam do what you been doing.
You know? - Mm-hmm.
- Writing, communicating.
I don't want to, um, intrude, and insinuate myself into some false family trio.
No.
That's not the type of family visit I was talking about.
Mm, mm.
No.
That's how we ended up with a son.
- Oh, he turned out all right.
- Yeah, he did.
He did.
He did.
Wish I'd have been there.
Yeah.
Me, too.
So, um, I have a question, and I'm hoping it doesn't sound like what it might sound like, but why now? Well, I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd stop by.
[BOTH CHUCKLE.]
Oh, you know how they say God is never late, He's always on time? And, um, when you and I were together we were nothing more than kids.
I know we thought that we were grown, but [CHUCKLES.]
No, the state certainly thought I was.
Yeah.
You couldn't tell us nothing.
Because of that and because of our youth, our ignorance, our strengths, our fearlessness because we were kids acting like adults, we, um we did things.
We made decisions.
And things happened and things can't unhappen.
- This is indisputable.
- [SIGHS.]
I mean, I thought I was grown.
But now when I look at Cam, and - I look at Mary Charles, it's just - Oh, man.
How is Mary Charles? She's good.
- Yeah? - She's good.
Rodney, I'm seeking my Catholic confirmation and part of that is corporal acts of mercy.
You know, practicing mercy on others, like Jesus did.
You know, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned.
[SCOFFS.]
So I am I'm just a part of your checklist for your spiritual journey? Huh.
Well if I can just be to you a good deed done, then I can be that.
I came because I wanted to see you.
I'm sorry for - moving on with life.
- No, I get it.
No, no, no, no, no.
Don't just say you get it.
I get it.
Look, I made some decisions that I thought were good decisions that may not have been.
Selfish decisions.
Will you forgive me for not making the effort to have your son know you? Mm.
Was that a yes? Yeah, yes.
Yes, you forgive me? Yes, Cassie.
Yeah, I, um Yeah, I I I forgive you.
Think you know, I did some dumb things.
Driving getaway cars.
Getting violent in a place that honors violence.
Now look at me.
It's good to look at you.
So Cam has brought me up to speed on your, um - sentence and stuff.
- [MUTTERS.]
Way too damn wise.
Well, now, it's gonna be a bit longer before I'm released back out into the wild.
- And when that happens? - I'll yes, I'll come over for dinner.
I wish, um there was more that I could do while you're in here.
I mean, I wish I could be of more help.
Really? Yeah.
Why don't you stand up, turn around, and let me see what you're working with.
Uh [LAUGHS.]
I am not gonna stand up just so you can see my ass.
What? [SCOFFS.]
Well, get me some candy.
What, you got You got quarters? I mean, you got these quarters.
- Yes and no.
- What did you bring them here for? [CHUCKLES.]
No, you said you were coming here to perform an act of mercy, man.
- Get me some candy.
- Oh, there is a strict dress code.
You're not gonna be able to see anything anyway.
One trains oneself in prison to imagine some powerful images.
Hmm? [WHISPERING.]
Go get me some candy.
Get me some candy.
Go ahead.
Get me some candy.
[MUSIC PLAYING.]
You're like a diamond Shining But he treats you like glass Yet you beg him to love you With me you don't ask If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman Here's what I'd do I'd never, no, no, stop loving you Yeah [HUMMING.]
[CHUCKLES.]
I'll be thinking about that for a very long time.
Are you sure you don't want to reconsider that family visit? - Hmm? - Stop loving you If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman If you were my woman [ALLISON CHUCKLING.]
I'll text Ma, M-Chuck, Reggie and Missy.
Don't you think it should just be immediate family? - It is my immediate family.
- Cassie and M-Chuck.
Your mother and your sister.
That's different from your cousin and his wife.
What's different from your cousin and his wife? We're having a an engagement- slash-meet-the-family dinner.
Oh.
What family's meeting? You and Cassie and my mom and dad.
Reggie and Missy don't make the cut? If they come, then I have to invite my cousins.
I never introduced you guys to Tanya.
[CHUCKLES.]
You've never mentioned her.
Because she's insufferable, and I don't want you to suffer.
- Mm.
- Also, when my dad tells my uncle that we had a family engagement dinner and your cousins were there and mine weren't, - it won't be good.
- Yeah, that's where our families differ.
Apparently yours values open communication and kindness whereas ours values secrecy and passive aggression, but don't worry.
Reggie and Missy will never find out from me that you shut them out, no matter what kind of ugly argument you and I get into 11 years from now.
- It's not like I got the memory of an elephant.
- No cousins.
Reggie will understand, Missy, too.
The she's a beast for protocol.
I thought we weren't telling them.
You thought that.
Why are you texting Reggie and Missy separately? Because one, stay out of my phone, and because two, I hate group texts.
No, but why text them at all? Like "I'm having a I'm having a family dinner.
Just letting you know you're not invited.
Love, Cam, your asshole cousin.
" - Yeah, I guess I didn't think that through.
- That's why I'm here.
- Call Ma.
- [LINE RINGING.]
CASSIE ON RECORDING: Hi, it's Cassie.
Leave a message.
Ma, it's me.
Uh, read your texts.
Oh, Ma doesn't like texts.
She likes voicemails.
She spent most of her life without all this technology and so I think the mere presence of a cell phone in her hand makes her feel like she's in a in a scary, unfamiliar world that is as dangerous as the one she barely escaped by the skin of her teeth, thanks to my dipshit brother here, and his freakish ability to dribble a small, inflatable piece of leather.
- [CHUCKLES.]
- Remember that any time you talk to anyone old.
They're petrified.
Y'all are nuts.
- Done.
- Not done.
- Where? - My house.
This mansion might make my folks feel intimidated.
Why? I'm sure the house you grew up in is a mansion compared to where we grew up.
We mostly grew up in one room shitholes - with a hole in the floor you shit into.
- She exaggerates.
Uh, the winter we spent in Hull? - That was for like two months.
- And where did we shit? In a hole.
But it went in a bucket.
It's not like we lived in a shit hole.
We lived in a room that surrounded it.
I didn't mean to imply that - you guys were shit - Okay, Allison, look.
We are regular people.
- Your folks should come witness that.
- Yeah, we shit in bathrooms now.
I love that you see yourself as a regular dude, but you are a superstar NBA player.
And as regular as it feels for you to be that, to regular people who are not superstars, this house is daunting.
Yeah.
Also this is the house you fuck his daughter in, so you probably want to stay far, far away.
Your parents' house? - Done.
- Cool.
So just, you know, text me.
There she is.
Thank you.
MISSY: Hi, Daddy.
I told you you didn't have to come.
SAMUEL: Oh, but I did.
You see, transactions of this nature, for the uninitiated, should be handled in person.
Remember that should you ever find yourself on the delivery end of this type of largesse, that you will want to look the recipient in the eye to see what they look like, hear first-hand how they sound, so you have some idea as to whether or not the thing you are about to do is, in fact, a good thing to do.
Then you see resolve.
I see that you're nervous.
Or better, anxious.
That's good.
Better than cocky.
I appreciate that you know you've resolved to taking a risk, rather than being foolish enough to think that you can convince me that you aren't.
I appreciate this.
The point of having had money set aside for you is so that you have the opportunity to take risks and make discoveries without betting the farm, per se.
Even if you lose every dime of this money, you will have learned something.
One thing being how easy it is to lose your money two years before it's supposed to be yours.
[CHUCKLES.]
And the other being something not yet apparent that I imagine one day you will perhaps phone me to explain.
You keep talking as if you know it won't work.
I don't know if it will or not.
I do know that it was working and growing at a reasonable, profitable safe rate over time since your birth.
I know that you've been exposed to the extraordinary sudden wealth of a professional athlete, and that may have obscured your thinking.
I also know that should this work out, you will feel smart and accomplished, and you may forget all of that anxiety you're feeling.
I want you to remember.
Is this the end of your speech? Well, you try putting a half million dollars into your child's hands and see how little you have to say about it.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Allison, will Cam be coming soon? Not if he's the same Cam Calloway that plays for Atlanta.
He said he'd be here.
Dad, what are you talking about.
According to Sportswire, Cam Calloway sank a three at the buzzer to take Atlanta into double overtime.
- Whoa! That's my baby! Nice.
- A double overtime? Yeah, they played and ended regulation in a tie score then ended the extra period in a tie score.
I don't know what time he's coming but it's not gonna be any time soon.
Well, why would you have plans in on game day, anyway? It was the only time everyone's schedules lined up.
Why didn't we do it yesterday? I mean, we were home.
Cassie, weren't you at home? CASSIE: Sitting right there, watching movies, eating ice cream.
You know, I was home last night.
All night.
Would've been a great time for a home-cooked meal.
It was home-cooked.
By our chef.
In our home.
So how come we didn't have dinner yesterday, baby girl? - That would've been perfect.
- I had to work.
You couldn't find anybody to cover for you? M-CHUCK: You know, you should talk to Cam.
He knows better than that.
You can't plan nothing on game day.
We've been having plans like that ruined for years.
Well, after you two are married, - you still plan on working? - I love my job.
I didn't go to school and study for all these years just to get married and quit.
Well, you are atypical with that! I mean, most girls marry a guy like my brother can't wait to quit.
And that's if they ever even get anything started.
Usually their job is to get knocked up as soon as humanly possible, and then negotiate about the upbringing of the baby-to-be.
Clearly you're not that type.
I I daresay you don't have a thot bone in your body.
Well, you might need one, 'cause these girls around here are serious.
I'm telling you, all these ballplayers do is get with these girls, have babies and pay child support and keep it moving.
But Cam, he's the marrying kind.
So how long y'all been married? - 30 years.
- Before the babies! - Impressive! - Not at that time.
Her mama come from a long line of fathers, - and they don't play that.
- Yeah, you guys are like a family full of unicorns.
I mean, you're working, you're cooking.
You're here.
CASSIE: Well, I hope y'all have lots of grandbabies.
I can't wait.
- We actually haven't talked about kids.
- Hey, speaking as the only other possible vessel by which Ma here is gonna get those grandbabies she's been lusting after with a vengeance, I'm kind of hoping that you'd be good for it, 'cause look, I'm not in a place in my life right now where I could even be entertaining carrying lives inside of me.
So if you could pop out, like, a niece and nephew or two or three, that'd be great.
I mean, Ma ain't the best ma.
She's getting better.
You you're getting better.
But grandma? I mean, I feel like she'd crush that.
Uh, so what you gonna do if Cam gets traded? - Traded? - Yeah, if he signs with another team.
I know what "traded" is, but why would Cam get traded? 'Cause this league is full of money-grubbing bastards who couldn't care less about where you wanna live or who you gotta drag along with you.
As long as they're making money whenever, whatever happens, happens.
I'm not saying that Atlanta is bad.
I'm just saying the one reason why we're here is this is where the money is.
M-CHUCK: I don't know if you guys know this, but Cam quite enjoys his money.
I mean, he ain't gonna say it out loud, but he does.
- I would, too.
- [LAUGHS.]
My man.
[LAUGHTER.]
Hey, wanna get a drink? Nah, I gotta get over to Allison's parents' house.
Got this engagement dinner with Ma, M-Chuck and her parents.
On a night after the game? - Don't ask.
- All right.
Squeeze driving you? - No, I got my car.
- Cool.
Yo, so, about that, uh, school thing.
- All right.
- I don't want to do it.
Ah, we ain't gotta talk about it now.
We just talked about it.
Yeah, but before you said you was gonna think about it, and then we'd talk about it.
Yeah, well, I thought about it, we talked about it, and the thinking and the talking are done.
Oh, ah double overtime loss, never a good time for business chats, so Dude, don't treat me like I'm some kid that that that can't have one feeling, disappointment over a game, and then another, not wanting to do a business deal for sound reasons, at the same time.
I'm sorry it came across that way.
Apology accepted.
- All right, well, I gotta go.
- Yeah, uh, listen, and I know we just talked about it, but for my own record-keeping purposes, why don't you want to do this? Told you why I don't want to do it.
I just I don't like the idea of us turning what was once schools into places to buy shit.
I don't want to make money like that.
It don't feel right because it ain't right.
I mean, have you looked around, man? You see how stupid this country is? - [CHUCKLES.]
- We need more schools and less nail salons, - not the other way around.
- Wait, so nail salons are the problem, not the military industrial complex? Hey, you wanna start some schools, let's start some schools.
Let's make some more money, and then we can tell people how they supposed to live.
Reg, come on, man.
You saw that neighborhood.
If they knocking down schools, they should be building up baseball fields.
- Eh, it's a dying sport.
- Okay, well, soccer fields, and whatever else.
They need to create a space for people to play more, not buy.
I don't want to be associated with it.
Chen might, but I ain't Chen.
You ain't either, man.
We're different.
We come from places like that neighborhood.
We need to honor those people and speak up for them, - and the neighborhood.
- [STAMMERS.]
I hear you.
I'm all about that, but Cam, this is a really great deal, man.
Oh, for fuck's sake, Reggie, I told you, man.
I thought about it.
I don't want to do it.
I don't think that you should do it, either.
It ain't what we wanna be.
Okay, when you say you don't think I should - That means I'm sure you shouldn't.
- And when you say you're sure Reg, are you gonna make me say it, man? I'm trying to be respectful.
I do not want you to do it.
There will be plenty of other opportunities that we will feel better about.
Just as good, man.
Watch.
I gotta go, man.
My fiancée's waiting.