Air date: January 17 2021
[phone keys beeping]
[engine revving]
Pick up the phone.
[horn honks]
[tires squealing]
[horn honking]
Pick up the fucking phone, Carlo!
[horns honking]
[tires squealing]
♫ I got the power ♫
[phone buzzes]
[Big Freedia’s “Louder” plays]
♫ I got the power ♫
♫ I got the power… ♫
[phone beeps]
150 grand in 24 hours! How do you like that for return on investment?
♫ Every time I walk up in the motherfuckin’ room ♫
♫ I make heads turn ♫
♫ And their minds go, “Boom” ♫
♫ Slayed so hard, big faces need a broom ♫
♫ Kill ’em softly ♫
♫ Then I put ’em in a tomb, walk up, walk up ♫
♫ Walk up, walk up, walk up in the room, money ♫
♫ Make her, make her mind go “Boom” ♫
♫ Money, money, money, money, money need a broom ♫
♫ Put ’em in a, put ’em in a, put ’em in a tomb ♫
♫ If you think that you’re on top ♫
[phone buzzes]
♫ It’s time to reevaluate ♫
♫ Honey, don’t step out of line ♫
♫ And, bitch, you better know your place ♫
♫ I’m screaming it, screaming it louder ♫
♫ I got the, I got the power I got the power ♫
♫ Bitches can’t help but be sour… ♫
[Carlo] Yeah. Leave a message.
[beep]
Don’t go to the hotel. Stay away from the hotel. Get away from the hotel!
[horn honks]
[tires screech]
[grunting]
[panting]
[distant ship’s horn blows]
[grunts]
[strained grunts]
[grunts]
[slow, suspenseful music]
[man] Morning.
[cocks hammer]
[slow, suspenseful music]
Come on.
[grunting]
[panting]
[strained grunting]
[grunts]
Oh, shit!
[panting]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[panting]
What?
Oh. [grunts]
[loud grunting]
Jesus Christ.
[slow, suspenseful music]
Leave it out front.
Yes, sir.
[tires squealing]
[phone line ringing]
[tires screeching]
Fuck!
Carlo, come and kiss your mother.
Go get the stuff.
[phone ringing]
[phone beeps]
Hey.
[Jimmy] Get him out of there!
What? Who?
Carlo! Now! Go!
[dialogue inaudible]
[sirens wailing]
[tires screeching]
[slow, suspenseful music]
[sirens continue distantly]
[phone buzzes]
[phone beeps]
[Frankie] Hi. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, I understand.
[phone beeps]
[seagulls squawking]
[Michael gasps]
We need you.
[panting]
[Nancy] Carlo Baxter, you’re under arrest.
For what?
You have the right to remain silent.
For what?!
You do not have to say anything, but I should warn you…
Fuck you!
…that anything you do say, including abusive language…
Fuck you up the ass.
…might be used in evidence against you.
Oh.
What’s your name?
Step back, ma’am.
[Carlo mutters]
She said step back!
I want your name.
Detective Costello, Mrs. Baxter.
Why are you arresting my son?
I think you know the answer to that.
[gentle music plays low in background]
Hey. Fia?
They’re saying he killed someone.
What?
In jail, the day of Rocco’s funeral. I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t know who else to come to, and I…
No, no, no, it’s-it’s okay. I’ve got you.
[Fia sighs, sniffles]
The wrong brother died. [sniffles] How can I feel something like that? But I do. Is that… is that terrible? Shit. You-you… [sniffles] Please don’t ever tell anyone I said that. Promise me?
I promise.
[door opens]
[woman shouting indistinctly nearby]
Hey, you didn’t see me, all right?
[exhales heavily]
[train whistle blows in distance]
[exhales heavily]
[train whistle continues blowing]
[Nancy] 150 grand and ten bucks. Did they get that wrong? The extra ten? Don’t tell me– poker winnings. Yeah, I’m figuring… it would be the easiest thing in the world to tie this to drugs. I’m also figuring we could forget about it… if you want to talk about Kofi Jones.
Kofi who?
This is a death penalty case. And the evidence, it’s… strong. You don’t always know with a jury, Carlo, but I’d say you’ve got maybe a 15% chance of walking away from this if you fight it. It takes balls.
What does?
Confessing early. Most men can’t do it. Early is the only way. Any later and… they just know you ran out of options. Every judge I’ve met knows the difference between remorse and self-pity.
Early?
Now.
[chuckles softly]
9 p.m. Thursday, June 6, 2009. I went to see for myself. It’s ’cause they don’t train them right, and deep down, they don’t want to be there. Execution teams are not good at finding a vein. Getting the needle in there can be… real hard. The one I witnessed? Fourteen times they tried. [scoffs softly] ‘Till eventually, they stopped trying, and they just stuck it in his groin. And then it doesn’t work. The second drug in the triple cocktail paralyzes everything. But it doesn’t take away the pain. Unimaginable agony. With no way of showing it. I don’t want that for anyone.
[knocking]
Wrap it up, Detective. His lawyer’s here.
[Nancy] So what’s he like?
Who?
Johnny Zander.
Who?
The lawyer.
I don’t know him.
Huh.
So you do your thing in there?
My thing?
“This hurts me as much as it hurts you. Come to Mama.”
Some.
What did he say?
It’s what he didn’t say that’s gonna matter.
[Frankie] Twenty years on the bench, and you’ve heard it all, right? About what human beings do to each other. Witness testimony and photographs. But never the real thing.
[panting]
Double knots. Tighter.
[Frankie grunts softly]
[grunts]
Get him up.
[metal clattering]
[Frankie grunts softly]
[strained grunts]
[grunts]
[panting]
[grunts]
[gasps softly]
[Frankie inhales deeply]
[grunts loudly]
[strained grunts]
[grunts]
[rope whirring]
[whooshing]
[slow, dramatic music]
[bell ringing distantly]
[horse neighing distantly]
He killed somebody.
It’s an allegation.
Police are saying–
The police? The police? Fucking police. You know what they do in the Quarter? They sell NOPD T-shirts from the police station on Royal Street. Are you kidding me? You people ran away from Katrina. And they sell T-shirts.
He did it, though?
Now I look at him… and I look at you.
[grunts]
[laughs softly]
[chuckles]
I just remembered it’s my birthday.
What’s funny? We’re a long way past that.
Past what?
Irony.
What are you, a fucking philosopher?
What are you, a fucking judge?
[Fia] I saw the money in Carlo’s bag. It was a lot, Dad.
I’m sorry you had to see.
Joey? What was in his bag?
[exhales sharply]
Carlo got into something when he was in prison.
[contemplative music]
And it’s gotten messy, like it always does with drugs.
What is wrong with him?
It doesn’t matter.
Wh-What do you mean?
Well, a father’s love for his children is unconditional. I love you, I love him. I loved Rocco. I love Rocco.
[Jimmy] [over voice mail] Don’t go to the hotel. Stay away from the hotel. Get away from the hotel!
[recording clicks off]
[Nancy] They knew.
What?
Oh, nothing. Hey, what’s he like? The lawyer.
Ask Lieutenant Cusack.
Cusack doesn’t know him.
Really? Deep conversation the two of them had when Zander got here.
No, they don’t know each other.
Then it was a hell of a first date.
In front of you, this conversation?
Parking lot.
They knew we were coming.
[Jimmy] It’s amazing what a man can do with the will to survive. That hiker who cut his own arm off. Can you imagine that? Or hitting someone with your car… and leaving them bleeding to death in the road. What does that take? And stealing his phone. What did you do with it?
It’s in the river.
Ah. You were thinking clearly for someone who just killed a child.
I wasn’t thinking, it was panic. I-I… Rocco crossed over into my lane.
Why didn’t you turn yourself in?
I wanted to. I was there t–
Where?
At the… at the police station. I went there to do just that, and-and… Then I saw you with your wife.
Did he say anything? Before he died?
He couldn’t. He-he couldn’t breathe.
Was he trying to speak?
Yes.
Did he think you were helping him?
I was helping. I did help him. I did everything that I could.
He called 911. You took his phone from him. You threw it in the river. Hmm? “Help”? “Help”? Is that what you call that? Anyone who… What kind of a human being is that? Hmm? [scoffs] You have a son.
Yes.
How old?
Adam… Adam is 17.
Does he love you?
Yes.
Respect you?
Yes, I think so.
Have you told him what kind of a man his father really is?
No, I haven’t said that. Have you told your children what kind of man you really are? Have you told them about the gas leak on Flood Street in the Lower 9th? The one that killed three small children and their mother. Have you told them that? Have you told them the ages of those children? Their names?
You know what losing a child gives you?
Terrible, visceral pain. An overwhelming sense of failure. And then there’s the… the surprising one. It’s a kind of freedom. Nothing matters. Not ever again. So you’re capable of anything. Anything.
If you don’t come through for Carlo, it would be the easiest thing in the world to cut your hard fucking heart out and feed it to the river.
[slow, ominous music]
[Adam] Dad?
Yeah.
Hey. [chuckles]
Hey. What are you doing?
Oh. Eh…
Dad. Hey, what happened to your face?
Oh. [chuckles]
Dad?
You want to kiss it better?
What?
You don’t remember that? You remember that time we went to the zoo? Maybe you don’t. I mean, you were only, what, five or six? Anyway, there was this-this mangy old camel, and it had a-a bandage around its leg and-and you said, “Kiss it better, Daddy?”
[laughs softly]
I mean, you got so angry and frustrated when I didn’t climb into the enclosure and kiss a camel. [laughs softly]
The father who can fix everything.
Uh, if there hadn’t been people around, I even think I might have done it.
I… But how did you hurt your face?
Oh. Just playing with Django. Caught a paw.
Wrestling?
Yes.
Oh, hey, Django, what are you doing? What? Django, what are you doing? Oh, Jesus. Get away from there.
[Adam] Hey, what’s this?
[Michael] Huh? Oh, the, um… Uh, the butcher, he, uh, he… he saves offcuts for-for Django. Come on, Django. Get away.
Eh, what is it?
It’s offal.
What’s offal?
Oh, it’s… the parts that we-we just don’t eat.
Like heart?
Yeah.
[Adam] It doesn’t look like a heart.
Really, I don’t know what it is, I-I don’t ask. He just gives it to us, so…
Okay, I mean, well, what’s white? The… brain?
Yeah.
Uh, sheep or pig?
Wh– Uh…
Did you know that it was Carlo Baxter who killed Kofi Jones?
Yes, I did. Um… The warrant for his arrest, t-that was me. How did you find out?
It’s out there.
Wh…?
Social media, Dad.
Oh.
W-When did you find that out? Was…
[phone ringing]
All right, look, look, that’s Judge LeBlanc calling. I need to take a quick shower, but tell her I’m on my way, okay? And tell her the reason why. Thank you.
[phone continues ringing]
[phone beeps]
Hello? Yeah, uh, no, he was, uh, playing with Django and Django’s paw caught his face. Uh, yeah, no, no. He’s-he’s fine, he’s, uh, he’s on his way.
We’re a week away from the enforced release of 16 murderers and nine rapists because we can’t find the court time to put them on trial.
This is about not having proper funding in the court system.
No, no, no. Fox News says it’s actually about 25 Willie Hortons coming out of jail next week to hang out on Bourbon Street. Or how the slowest judge in New Orleans is gonna get your daughter raped or your son murdered. That’s you, Michael. You are the problem. Fox is asking for a picture of you. They want one of you smiling. Do you have one of those?
Not lately.
I’ve never done anything like this before. It just, it just… it breaks all the rules. But I love you, so… I asked Molly to give you the Carlo Baxter arraignment. I thought maybe you could show everybody the size of your balls. Otherwise known as standing up to, not up for, criminals.
[Slow, somber music]
[bailiff] All rise. All rise. Court is in session.
[door closes]
[Michael] Mr. Zander, is your client ready to enter a plea at this time?
Yes, Your Honor.
Very well. Carlo Baxter, to the count of murder in the first degree, how do you plead?
Not guilty.
All right.
Your Honor, I’d like to request that bail be set.
Ms. McKee?
This is a death penalty case. Mr. Baxter is a violent criminal.
Ms. McKee, you’re addressing me, not the National Enquirer.
Sorry. I’ll start again.
This is a death penalty case. Mr. Baxter’s a violent criminal. How about being a little more specific on your objections to bail?
Fuck you. Fuck you up the ass. Mr. Baxter’s response to being Mirandized. It’s a way better articulation about his attitude to being held in custody than anything I can come up with. He’s about as near to the perfect definition of a flight risk since El Chapo got cuffed.
I agree.
[Jimmy] Go fuck yourself.
Excuse me?
Go fuck yourself.
You know, I think it’s good to get your feelings out, Mr. Baxter… man-to-man and everything, but if you do it again, I will have you arrested for contempt of court. Do you understand me? Do you understand me, Mr. Baxter?
[door closes]
[low, indistinct chatter]
[haunting music]
[low, indistinct chatter]
[scoffs]
What the fuck?
I have to make this look legit.
What the fuck?!
Shh!
Come on.
Why do you think I told you to go fuck yourself, hmm? I hate you, you hate me, it’s beautiful.
No one is going to question my integrity if I get this trial.
If? If?
I meant when I get this trial. When… I get it.
It’s okay. It-It’s all right. We’re-we’re-we’re fine now. It’s okay.
[Kevin Gates’s “Push It” plays]
♫ Took a lot of losses, had to bounce back ♫
♫ She got ass, love it when it bounce back ♫
♫ Came back strong, had to bounce back ♫
♫ Applying pressure, watch a nigga bounce back ♫
♫ Huh, huh, push it up all in his face ♫
♫ And he think that I’m pushing, like what we got talk about? ♫
♫ Ain’t shit to talk about, I put the calls on these niggas ♫
♫ I call ’em out, call ’em out, huh, huh, push it, yeah ♫
♫ Huh, huh, push it ♫
♫ I’m in his face and he thinkin’ I’m pushing ♫
♫ Major mistake if you thinkin’ I’m pussy, yeah ♫
♫ Huh, huh, push it, push it ♫
♫ I’m in his face and he thinkin’ I’m pushing ♫
♫ Major mistake if you thinkin’ I’m pussy, yeah ♫
♫ 252 on the digi’, I’m still in the kitchen ♫
♫ I’m cookin’ up a four and a half… ♫
We doing drop-ins now?
Baxters don’t deal heroin.
Some Baxters do.
You know Carlo got arrested.
You the new delivery man now?
The drugs are gone.
See, now, that’s not gonna work.
They bought and paid for.
I gave your son 150 large.
It’s in an evidence locker at the police station, together with the heroin; you want it, go get it.
I’m gonna be made whole, either by you or Carlo. Do you speak for your son, or is he his own boss?
The 150, that’s on you. As for Carlo… he’s my only son. You understand me?
Looks like you and me ain’t in the problem solving business today.
[Kevin Gates’s “Push It” keeps playing]
♫ You gotta be cautious, I’m clutching, you crossin’ us ♫
♫ Pump put a permanent scar in your top ♫
♫ Bought a new freak, she got a big head like Rihanna ♫
♫ It’s cute, I’m not takin’ a shot ♫
♫ Designer my closet, pick up a deposit ♫
♫ On Michigan Ave. when I chill in the Chi ♫
♫ I’m in two lanes, whip is insane ♫
♫ I had to take off the brain ♫
♫ I got some change, drive with two names ♫
♫ On the Blackberry doin’ my thing ♫
♫ I been pushing them thangs ♫
♫ Pushing it, pushing it ♫
♫ I been doing my thang ♫
♫ Pushing it, pushing it pushing it, pushing it ♫
♫ Pushing it, pushing it, yeah ♫
♫ Took a lot of losses, had to bounce back… ♫
[Little Mo] They robbing us.
That there? The bold walk-in? Bullshit show of strength hiding weak as all fuck underneath. Family split like that, all we need is a lever to break it open. As far as Carlo’s concerned, nothing changes; I’ll deal with him. That’s how we fuck with his daddy. Something to say, little man? Mm. Get word into OPP. Let’s make sure his son know he ain’t hiding from us in there.
[Kevin Gates’s “Push It” keeps playing]
♫ Sick wit’ compartments, Toyota Corolla ♫
♫ I’m hopin’ to load ’em, get caught on the slap ♫
♫ Nothing impossible, had a few obstacles ♫
♫ Right back to clocking like I never left ♫
♫ My windows is tinted, my mouth and my watch… ♫
[door squeaks open]
I didn’t get it, did I?
Sarah LeBlanc will be trying Carlo Baxter.
She’ll do a great job.
[Michael] It’s random, the selection of judges. That’s just the way it works.
You know what I hate? Atlanta. Peaches, peach trees, Peachtree Street. I hate Atlanta. But nothing as much as I hate people who break their promises.
Do you know how hard this has been on me?
[laughs]
Every principle that I have ever…
When you left my son dying on the side of the road, you lost that. Principle?! No.
I can still make this work.
How? You’re out of time. Give me the answer to my question now.
[Michael] Desire will kill him. If Carlo goes down for this, he’ll never come out, and then you’ll have two… You’ll have two dead sons. You need me. You can’t do this without me. Your-your wife, your daughter…
That’s why I asked for how. Do you have how?
Yes, I do.
[knocks]
Hey.
Where were you?
When?
[sighs]
The breakfast meeting you set up this morning with, uh, our client who brought us in over $3.5 million dollars of billable hours last year?
Oh, my God, that was this morning.
Yeah. This morning. So?
There was an arraignment I had to see.
Had to? Uh-huh. [sighs] I thought I told you to drop your Carlo Baxter obsession.
Yeah, well, I got him charged with murder instead.
We don’t do crime, Lee. You don’t do crime.
He killed one of our clients.
I think you’re… you’re confused, Lee. At no point did our firm represent Kofi Jones or his family. We do, however, represent the Orleans Parish Prison. Which is why– Which is why I told you to leave this alone.
Look away when a kid is murdered in an institution whose first job is supposed to be keeping the vulnerable safe? Keep looking away when that same institution does absolutely nothing to figure out who killed him?
We’re lawyers, Lee. We speak for those people who pay us to speak. In this case, it’s the OPP.
Kofi was a child. His brother is a child. I can’t just let this be.
Hmm. Yeah. You mean every word of that.
Yeah.
Uh-huh. Which is why I’m letting you go, Lee.
You’re firing me?
[chuckles] You left already.
What is this, constructive dismissal? Am I firing myself?
Lee, you look me in the eye, and you convince me that you’ll put all your energy and passion you have been putting into working for your Lower Nine orphan into fighting for the tax interests of those people that you forgot to have breakfast with this morning… then you can stay.
[slow, suspenseful music]
[footsteps approaching]
[officer speaks low]
Thank you.
Michael?
Oh.
You okay?
Well, this is what we used to do, by the way. Robin and I? We used to come, sit side by side in this very bar and we would just make our way through the best top-shelf single malts. [chuckles]
Yep. On your birthday.
Yeah, yeah– Yes. I forgot, it is my birthday. I keep forgetting. [chuckles]
♫ Don’t know when they’ll end ♫
♫ If they’ll ever end ♫
♫ I can’t even rub two quarters… ♫
[exhales]
♫ And I ain’t got… ♫
Oh, that’s good. Mmm. No, you know what? It’s actually not just my birthday. It’s both of our birthday. We were born on the same day. Robin and I– well, five years apart, but still. You knew that, right? Did I tell you– I didn’t tell you that? I was going to talk about that in the eulogy, but then I-I didn’t think I would be able to get through it. Could I have two more?
[bartender] You got it.
I mean, Sarah, it’s-it’s only been a year, and it-it… it-it feels… I mean, does it seem to you that it… it’s a betrayal?
Does she make you happy?
Lee?
Yes.
Then there’s your answer.
I’m out.
Thank you.
Where are we going?
I’m cooking you dinner.
Really? Nice. Uh, this is not the way to…
At your house.
Oh. Did something happen?
Yeah.
Yeah? That’s all? Yeah?
Yeah. [laughs softly]
You’re not gonna tell me?
Not yet.
Well, I have something I want to say to you, too.
What? Michael, what?
Maybe it’s the same thing.
[siren chirps]
[quietly] You’ve got to be kidding me.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[door alarm dinging]
This your car, ma’am?
What do you think?
Simple question, ma’am.
I’m white– you asking the same thing?
[sighs] Fifteen seconds in, there it is, she pulls the race card.
I’m a judge– are you asking the same thing?
[sniffs] You been drinking, ma’am?
It’s either that or the car’s been drinking. Somebody put a daiquiri in the gas tank?
World-class potholes, every car in New Orleans looks drunk. The only question is, who do you choose to stop using your white man’s discretion?
Hands on the wheel.
I told you, I’m a judge. If you think I’m actually gonna try to pull a weapon… Really, you are–
Hands on the wheel now.
You know what? Fuck you. Fuck the both of you.
Hands on the fucking wheel.
[slow, somber music]
[talking low, indistinctly]
I love you.
Lee? The light’s green.
[group] Surprise!
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
[laughter]
[somber music]
[group] ♫ Happy birthday to you ♫
♫ Happy birthday to you ♫
♫ Happy birthday ♫
♫ Dear Michael ♫
♫ Happy birthday to you ♫
[somber music]
[dialogue inaudible]
[Charlie] Our birthday boy has a problem. He doesn’t like it when people say nice things about him in public. I’ve known Michael Desiato nearly all my life, a life I wouldn’t have had were it not for him pulling me out of Lake Pontchartrain. Age six, damn near drowned. Then having the presence of mind to turn me upside down by my ankles and shake all the lake water in my skinny-ass lungs right out of there. [chuckles] Michael Desiato always backs himself to make things right.
[sighs]
Grace under pressure? Look at him. He got it. Calm decisions in the heat of action? Oh, yeah. I’ve been proud to stand next to this man through his life. I’m privileged to call him my friend, and for his integrity, his dignity and for being just about good enough for a white man on the basketball court to make it a real satisfaction to whup his ass every time… [chuckles] Michael Desiato will always have my vote.
[laughter, applause]
[indistinct chatter]
[man] All right, Michael.
[cheering]
[somber music]
[phone beeps]
Jimmy.
[Charlie] To an honorable man.
[all] To an honorable man.
[Django chokes]
[Michael] Hey.
[Django whimpers]
What happened, buddy?
[Adam] What’s wrong with Django?
[suspenseful music]
[“In My Secret Life” by Leonard Cohen]
♫ In my secret life ♫
♫ In my secret life ♫
♫ I smile when I’m angry ♫
♫ I cheat and I lie ♫
♫ I do what I have to do ♫
♫ To get by ♫
♫ But I know what is wrong ♫
♫ And I know what is right ♫
