"¶ I got one hand on my heart, now ¶" "¶ the other's on a gun ¶" "¶ the city burns to ashes ¶" "¶ in the house of the rising sun ¶" "¶ in the house of the rising sun ¶" "[ siren wailing in distance ]" "[ Indistinct conversations ]" "[ Beeping ]" "[ Sighs ]" "One door closes, another door opens." "I had him, Vera." "Richie destefano sitting in my office ready to spill his guts." "Richie's uncle was Sam destefano." ""Mad" Sam destefano?" "Yep." "The mob enforcer?" "I kid you not, kid." "Didn't he torture people in his basement?" ""Mad" was an understatement, the whole family." "You're better off." "Wow." "Hey." "Hey." "The uniform looks kind of good on you, Paulie." "Kind of?" "I look [Bleep] awesome." "Better than Donny in his." "Tell you what, I put this on, my whole posture fell in line." "I didn't need it to have it altered or anything." "It just fits, you know, like a second skin." "I'm not so sure you want that, unless you're one of the village people." "It's the genetic breeding." "Fourth-generation Irish police." "Look at this." "Huh, right?" "Mm." "The walk fits the uniform." "The uniform fits the walk." "Ain't swagger, Katie." "It's all me." "Paulie got his groove back?" "[ Scoffs ]" "You know, I don't know I ever had a groove to lose before I put this on." "Everything just feels right, you know?" "Finally." "Things falling into place." "So, what's so urgent it couldn't wait till tomorrow, huh?" "You off duty?" "Just got off a double-double." "You have time to talk?" "Yeah." "I'm beat, but what do I got to go home to?" "When Alice split, she took the cat and the kid, and I don't [Bleep] have cable." "If whistle-blowing were easy, more people would do it." "Takes two to tango, though." "What the [Bleep] does that mean?" "It means it takes two to tango." "Vera:" "Somebody holds a gun to your head, you wouldn't dance?" "Thank you." "[ Indistinct conversations ]" "You have turned a corner." "I bought drinks before." "Never." "Come on." "Never, ever." "don't bust my balls, Katie." "I get it all day on the job." "I can't help noticing, though, you didn't exactly pay for these." "Yeah, well, it's a cop bar." "Cops drink free." "What?" "You thought shooting unarmed citizens is the only job perk?" "How can mcauley's make any money giving away free drinks?" "It's a new kind of economics thing." "You wouldn't understand." "Quid pro quo is older than machiavelli, Paulie." "Whoever that is, sure." "So, what's up?" "They call it "crook county."" "[ Scoffs ]" "But the [Bleep] extends far beyond the county line, all the way down to Springfield." "Louisiana's worse." "Tennessee." "New Jersey." "[ Both chuckle ]" "You brought down dozens of bad guys in your day." "Sure, but did it make a difference?" "Really?" "Bud o'Rourke -- that was a huge score." "When we offered him immunity to name names, though, he took the mob out." "He pled guilty, clammed up, did his time." "Operation greylord, operation silver shovel." "Huge scores, but what changed?" "If Richie doesn't recruit Jimmy or kill him, they're gonna kill Richie." "Cops acting like gangsters?" "That's insane." "Is it?" "Mom's nuts." "So is Richie." "Contract hits on retired cops?" "You believe that [Bleep]" "Should I?" "I mean, that might have been the way that the Chicago police department operated when bud o'Rourke was chief of detectives, but it's all on the up-and-up now." "Richie's got that brain thing, right?" "No, he's fine, though." "Is he?" "Donny told me that Richie and Serena attended three funerals in the past three months -- all of them retired cops, all of them former associates of big bud, and all of them died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head." "All of them left suicide notes." "Homicide said." "Isn't that weird?" "They're old." "They're depressed." "If I was that old and my brain was fried," "I'd shoot myself, too." "No." "Richie can't have imagined all this." "Richie's brain is zapped, Katie." "Look, if any of this [Bleep] was actually going on," "I'd know about it." "I've been on the job almost two months now." "I'm an insider." "You got your wedding coming up." "Focus on your wedding." "Okay, if Richie's dead, who's gonna walk me down the aisle?" "Well, like my partner says, don't sweat the [Bleep]" "And don't invent conspiracy where there isn't one, Katie." "Hey, I'm still chief groomsman, right?" "[ Scoffs ] I don't know." "Will you be sober?" "I'll show up that way." "No guarantee I'll leave that way." "[ Sighs ] There's a little blip, though." "Hmm?" "Ellen doesn't want to be my maid of honor anymore." "She's not sick again, is she?" "So, um, I'm thinking about asking Alice." "No [Bleep] way." "No [Bleep] way." "You'd do that to me?" "I'm not doing it to you, Paulie." "I'm doing it for me." "I'm stuck." "You know Alice can't stand me." "She's still family, though." "Not since she [Bleep] divorced me." "She's still the mother of my niece." "Yeah, she's fighting me for full custody of Maria." "If I ask Alice to be the maid of honor," "I'm gonna have to make Maria the flower girl." "You -- flower girl?" "I didn't have any of this pomp and circumstance at my wedding." "Yeah, you did." "You were just too wasted to remember it." "[Bleep]" "You know, if Alice does this, she's gonna want to bring that [Bleep] chuckle-head with the afro." "It's not an afro." "[Bleep] Chuckle-head Chuck." "Okay, I'm not gonna ask Alice if it means having to choose between you and her." "You know, she deliberately refuses to marry that walking q-tip so that she can keep sticking me for alimony." "Okay, I won't ask her." "No." "Ask her." "If she says "yes," will you still be there?" "You're my sister." "I will be there, of course." "Just [Bleep] ask her." "I don't trust the law makers." "I don't trust the law enforcers." "I don't trust the banks." "I don't trust big business." "I don't trust the schools." "No way I trust organized religion." "And I certainly don't trust wall street." "[ Chuckles ]" "The U.S. is on the verge of becoming a full-blown kleptocracy." "I've been hearing it since the '80s " ""it's only illegal if I get caught."" "That's law and disorder." "[ Car horns honking ]" "[ Siren walls ]" "So, why you going through with this charade anyway, huh?" "Donny's a putz." "We're in love." "He's a [Bleep] midget." "He's 5'2"." "You know, Richie had to call in favors just to get the munchkin instated." "And short guys -- they always say they love taller women." "Actually, it gives them a complex." "The novelty of it wears off over time, and it adversely affects the little guy's fragile self-esteem." "You can't blame dad for everything, Katie." "He made both of our lives a living hell, Paulie." "Mine, maybe." "I got bullied just as much as you did." "I seriously doubt that." "Fourth grade through seventh grade?" "Katie germs." "Anyone who touched me, and they passed that [Bleep] around like a four-year game of tag." ""Paulie Parerra" -- those [Bleep] kids called me "pp"" "from kindergarten through eighth grade." "Katie germs were considered to be more deadly than the bubonic plague because my dad was a rat." "That's creative." "Ouch." "Freshman year, i came out of the showers." "The other girls spit on me, whipped me with wet towels, a.K.A. Rat tails, called me Katie pariah, and then locked me inside of a locker." "Naked?" "Naked." "If you weren't my sister, that would be borderline erotica." "Freshman girls did this?" "At mean girls high." "Ay-yi." "I got beat on a lot, and I didn't get completely laid until I was 19, but I..." "Don't know that I can top that one." "Next, I suppose, you're gonna be laying the, uh, corpse of Dylan donahue at dad's doorstep." "He didn't dump you 'cause of dad." "He told you that?" "He was clerking for a judge at 26th and Cal, and the judge recommended him for the mayor's chief-of-staff job." "Dylan was told, in no uncertain terms, if he marries the daughter of Jimmy pariah, the offer's retracted." "You or the job?" "[ Sighs ]" "I didn't know that." "I'm sorry." "God." "Vera:" "Corruption is a misnomer, Kenny." "In essence, corruption is a process by which something changes from its original state to one that is debased." "[ Sighs ]" "Were human beings ever not debased?" "You distract the q-tip." "I'm not dancing with Chuck." "Come on, Katie." "Take one for the team." "No, he is a chuckle-head." "Look, everybody's gonna want to dance with the bride at the wedding." "It's good luck." "You'll look so beautiful." "No one's gonna say "no" to you, not even chuckle-head Chuck." "That's when I swoop in on Alice." "You really think she'll dance with you?" "You kidding?" "All dressed up?" "Clean now?" "And gainfully employed?" "How could she not, huh?" "All right, maybe you get her a little drunk first." "Think about it." "Maria looking all cute as puppy turds in her little flower-girl dress." "I won Alice over before." "I know the moves." "You really want them back, don't you?" "I do." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I know now how dad must have felt when he lost us, you know." "What?" "Is that stupid?" "Hey." "It's a shot, right?" "You know, when Maria was born, i found dad, went to go visit him, tried to make some peace." "Oh, yeah?" "How'd that go?" "It was like I invited the [Bleep] wrath of God down on me." "Every time I went to visit, i was ticketed or towed." "Three separate occasions," "I got pulled over as I was leaving." "Of course, they find drugs in my car." "It " " I was clean by then." "They [Bleep] planted them." "See?" "Even you don't believe me." "Look, being a new dad at the time, I had too much to lose." "I took the hint." "And what?" "I stopped visiting." "I haven't seen him in years now." "You?" "Invite him to the wedding." "Huh?" "He'd love it." "Mom would love it." "What's a [Bleep] wedding?" "It's a new beginning." "Weddings reek of hope." "People get more buzzed on the razzle-dazzle than the booze at those things." "I had one." "I should know." "How the [Bleep] did you even get in?" "I have a sneaking suspicion." "The department?" "If Richie called in favors to get Donny in, who's your rabbi?" "I aced the test." "No." "You've never aced a test in your life." "You barely graduated high school." "Know all the questions and the answers beforehand, acing is easy." "You cheated?" "I prepared." "By cheating." "Tomayto, tomahto." "How'd you get all the answers beforehand?" "Look, we got a little thing in the department called the code of silence." "I need to remain obedient to that code if I want to continue enjoying the perks of my position." "So, the department's hiring convicted felons now?" "[ Scoffs ] Who's a convicted felon?" "Okay, your pot busts were misdemeanors, but what about the half a dozen times you got busted for coke and other illicit substances?" "Never happened." "The police perp-walked you out of the house in handcuffs more than once." "Oh, yeah." "Did I ever do time?" "Probation." "You have a record." "Do I?" "don't you?" "You will find nothing whatsoever to besmirch my character, inspector." "Wait." "No, no, no." "No, no, no." "Before you jump in your [Bleep] pulpit to sermonize, you remember -- bush senior had the c.I.A. Vanish w's spotty service record so that he could be president, too." "All his d.U.I.S, his coke problem -- gone." "What?" "I should play by a different set of rules?" "Why?" "Hell, dick Cheney still goes duck hunting with fat Tony scalia." "Nobody cries foul on that." "Plenty of people do." "Yeah, all right, but nobody does anything about it." "You know why nobody sweats the federal deficit anymore?" "A lot of people do, Paulie." "Because America owns the printing presses." "China calls in the debt, we just print more money, so [Bleep] them." "You think I can't think for myself?" "Think again." "Sounds like someone's doing your thinking for you, Paulie." "Yeah, well, it turns out my patrol partner and I got a lot of the same ideas, so..." "Who's your patrol partner?" "Phil Davis." "He used to be special-unit narcotics, and then he got busted down to patrol." "Oh!" "You and Phil have narcotics in common." "That's nice." "Mm." "And don't ask me why he was busted down to patrol 'cause I'm not at Liberty to share that information." "So big bud -- he called in favors, then, so you could suit up?" "Big bud doesn't have that kind of clout anymore." "He was chief of detectives." "18 years ago." "He was supercop." "18 years ago." "For one thing, he's been rotting in prison that whole time." "And for another, the only reason he's getting out early is 'cause he's so sick." "How sick?" "I invoke the code." "He's dying?" "You don't get early release for a [Bleep] chest cold, Katie." "So he's dying." "Great." "Now I got to take you out in the alley and shoot you." "Let's go." "Does mom know?" "Last call." "I never said anybody recruited me." "I deduced it." "What do you got to do?" "Just little [Bleep]" "Like what?" "Just, like, family [Bleep] you know." "Like, I go visit big bud and tell Phil whatever big bud tells me." "Like as in provide the names of the retired cops on big bud's old crew, the ones that are still loyal to him?" "Wait a second." "As in tell them that Richie went to see big bud for a bailout?" "Katie, whoa." "Little [Bleep] like that?" "Who does Phil share this privileged information with?" "His bosses." "Oh." "Could these be the same bosses that big bud wants to oust?" "Come on." "You're a rat." "I'm not a [Bleep] rat." "Big bud may be a nasty, old [Bleep]" "But he's still your grandfather." "don't even pull this [Bleep] with me, Katie." "I bought you a drink." "I bought you three drinks." "Come on." "Cops acting like gangsters is crazy?" "Look at you." "You're beholden to bosses that have you ratting out your own grandfather and fingering guys for execution." "That's insane." "That doesn't make it not true, not if this whole world has gone crazy." "We're not gangsters." "Free drinks?" "The code of silence?" "That's a job requirement." "Take me out in the back and shoot me?" "That's an endearment." "Oh, lovely." "It's an expression for [Bleep] sake." "Cheating on the entrance exam?" "Vanishing felonies?" "Quid pro quo?" "That's a gangsterism." "Quit [Bleep] on my parade, Katie." "When the cops serve and protect self-interest rather than law and order, they're gangsters, Paulie." "You're just peeing all over this -- who the [Bleep] is peeing?" "Because Donny's not a made guy." "A "made guy"?" "Another expression." "Okay, so as a made guy yourself, there's nothing that you can do?" "About what?" "To prevent your bosses from killing Richie?" "Whoa, whoa." "Who said I was a made guy?" "Aren't you?" "I'm a rookie cop." "I'm still being vetted." "Vetted?" "It's a process." "don't even ask." "Who are these big bosses anyway?" "I'm not vetted yet." "How would I know?" "Well, they sound like crime lords." "They -- they -- they run things, you know." "Th-they're bosses." "I-i don't know." "Who order contract killings." "Just because you're hell-bent on marrying a guy you can't stand means I got to be miserable too?" "You make fun of Donny every chance you get." "Since when is contempt solid grounds for marriage?" ", huh?" "You know what?" "You're calling me out?" "I'm calling you out." "You told Alice to leave me." "Alice is a grown woman." "She can make her own decisions." "You encouraged her." "Why would I do that?" "'Cause you want me to be as miserable as you are." "You were a drug addict." "I'm clean now." "Well, you weren't then." "I'm trying to do better, Katie, all right?" "Given what I got, I am trying to improve myself, unlike you." "You?" "You wallow in misery." "You know what Jimmy would say?" "don't you play the [Bleep] dad card with me." "That's not fair." "So the system's a little corrupt, and for a guy like me to succeed in it, maybe I got to bend the rules." "Fingering guys for execution is a little more than bending the rules, Paulie." "No, I -- what alternative do I have?" "Oh, that's a defense?" "Look, I stand up and I cry foul, i end up like dad." "For [Bleep] sake, Katie," "I'm trying to get my family back, not lose them all over again." "After years of screwing up and being screwed over for being Jimmy [Bleep] Pariah's son," "I finally got a leg up." "I want to prove to Alice and Maria that I can finally make good." "By becoming bad?" "It's the way the system is set up." "The cards are stacked against do-gooders, right?" "The only way to get ahead is to cut corners." "And that's the world you want to leave with your daughter?" "What choice do I have, Katie?" "[ Exhales ]" "There's no way I can be that cynical, Vera." "Give it time." "What's left to trust in?" "What?" "I still trust in God." "Oh, good for you." "Which one?" "I also trust in the inherent goodness of people." "You and Anne frank." "Trust blindly, and they rob you blind and whisk you off to the gas chamber." "I used to be you." "I know." "To give in to cynicism that absolute, that intractable, it's monstrous." "It -- it breeds inaction." "It's a death sentence." "I have to do something to affect positive change." "Hmm." "No matter what the reality." "No matter what." "You're right." "You're still young." "[ Chuckles ] don't listen to me." "[ Laughs ]" "You have to believe in something." "Walter cronkite." "I believed in him." "He, you could be trust." "[ Sighs ]" "But he's dead now, so..." "[ Indistinct conversations ]" "They're kicking everyone out." "I know." "I quit, but..." "I have to fit into a wedding dress, and I want to look skinnier than Donny, which is a challenge, i know, but still." "If I invite dad, theoretically him and big bud could dance at my wedding." "Mom would like that." "Richie's dead." "I just got a call." "From Phil." "How?" "Shot in the head with his own gun." "He was in his car parked in a [Bleep] Walmart parking lot." "He left a note." "This must have been why Phil's guys recruited me, why they pulled so many strings for me." "I did not know I was fingering them to be killed, Katie." "I swear." "What I knew and what I didn't know doesn't really [Bleep] matter now, does it?" "[ Car horn beeps ]" "Hey." "We made this mess, and we can clean it up." "Sure." "If I go find dad now, he's gonna talk me into shaving my chest, marching down to the FBI, and strapping on a [Bleep] wire." "What are you gonna do?" "What choice do I have, Katie?"