Original subtitles

♪ (ENERGETIC DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

You know, people mistake their needs being satisfied

for freedom,

but when it drinks this well, who are we to argue?

HILARY WYNDHAM: How did you know I was a Lagavulin man?

I just wish you'd sent a revolver instead.

Oh, well, you're going to get that next week.

You can quote SternTao's view,

"The shares are trading above fair value

and stand to correct."

JIM DYCKER: I have more valuable sources

than a barely nascent fund to quote,

especially as you're yet to give me anything

more material on Tender other than what I already have.

Look, I think they're processing porn

and gambling payments in jurisdictions

where it's illegal and using third-party acquisitions

to wash them, even though Halberstram has mooted

that he may wind up those income sources.

Well, shit.

I will give you a quote.

"SternTao are actively pursuing Tender

as a potential short, among other positions."

Yeah, my article isn't a cotillion

for your new venture.

Are you calling Tender fraudulent or not?

I mean, I don't think I'll get the F-word past my editor.

HARPER STERN: Is there a not insignificant chance

that your piece gets gutted or squashed by legal?

No. The worst-case scenario is

the more alarmist language is sanded down.

I view it as the first in a potential series.

I'm trying to get financial sign-off from my editor

for underground reconnaissance further afield.

Can I be blunt?

Are you short Tender in a personal account?

Excuse me?

Do you stand to gain financially

by speaking negatively about them?

I saw your piece about getting fleeced in FTX.

I'd understand if you were...

looking for shortcuts to rebuild your life.

You know what? I am rebuilding my life.

Through my honest work. All right?

Certainly not by being naive enough to go back

to the thing that burned me.

I don't even have an active trading account anymore.

Doesn't sound like you're on your way

to our new investor breakfast.

HILARY: Eric, I would have been excited

to have come and listened to you and...

- ERIC TAO: Harper. - (GASPS MOCKINGLY)

Ah, unforgettably forgettable memories

from the Pierpoint killing floor.

ERIC: Well, we're calling ourselves "SternTao."

Between you and me,

the short only fund is a little high-risk for us

at the Railway Pension Scheme.

Well, if there's any more protein

on the illegal payments laundering thesis,

- I want it. - JIM: Yeah, you know,

this isn't how this relationship works.

FINDIGEST STAFF 1: Yeah, stop calling it "click-bait"

and call it "curiosity gathering."

Hello?

ERIC: I hope your son gets your money's worth at Yale,

and don't worry,

he'll come back to you eventually.

Do you really believe that?

For a loan, yeah.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

Just trying to find common ground with the guy.

What is this, the Deadbeat Dads Club?

I think this might be too intimate a space

to be working together.

ERIC: Who were you on the phone to?

♪ (INTRIGUING SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

The Railway Pension scheme was long odds anyway.

They don't have that kind of appetite for risk.

The composition of our audience who've confirmed for breakfast...

family offices, high-net worth individuals.

Dumb money?

You lead us off.

I'll fill in the gaps.

Okay.

(HENRY MUCK CHUCKLES)

♪ (INTRIGUING MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

When you fuck my mouth with your tongue like that,

I know I've got you back.

- (SOFT KNOCKING) - HAYLEY CLAY: Sorry.

I just wanted to tell you that Jennifer Bevan's here.

Your 9:00 a.m.

Great.

- Thanks, Hayley. - HAYLEY CLAY: Yeah.

(YASMIN KARA-HANANI CHUCKLES)

You can't talk like that in here.

I can.

And I will.

Now, you need to focus

on the societal benefit angle of the app,

financial well-being.

But I also think that we should really use this time with Bevan

to highlight the Muck Renaissance, you know?

Just as much as you feel comfortable with.

Men shouldn't feel a stigma when talking

about their mental health, that kind of thing.

Yeah, won't she... Won't she see through me, I don't know...

weaponizing my trauma?

But, Henry, narrative is important.

People are gonna narrativize this for you,

so you might as well control it.

She saw you at your worst.

She's gonna be feeding back to government.

We just need to build her trust in you.

HENRY: Yeah, Whitney and the Tender board trust me,

that's what matters.

I mean, they made me CEO for fuck's sake,

but th... this isn't about me.

This is about the details of the company,

and... and in the immediacy,

it's about getting the IBN Bauer merger

over the line with the regulator.

No, no, look, if I make it too personal, I'll...

I'll just put my fucking foot in my mouth.

- (EXHALES SHAKILY) - Darling...

♪ (DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

...you are the company.

You're the head and the heart.

It's all about you.

I'd be dead without you, you know that?

(YASMIN CHUCKLES)

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪

- Ready? - Yeah.

Yeah.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

Tender's ambitions predate me.

I never made any attempt to, um...

to cover up my failure at Lumi,

nor have I oversold my successful,

if, uh, short-lived, political career.

These are the vicissitudes of life

in the arena as I see it.

And Jennifer, you and Henry are on the same page.

I mean, you surely know

what it's like to live in the firing line

simply because you care enough to be engaged.

HENRY: Yeah, you know what? Um...

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

If you want to talk about me, let's, uh...

(CLEARS THROAT) ...let's talk about me.

I could talk about my profound struggles

with mental health, uh, my family's barbaric history.

I could talk about the fact

I most likely wouldn't be sat here if my wife...

hadn't have pulled me out of a pretty dark hole

after the election.

But your party consistently voted to underfund access

to mental health on the NHS.

Yeah, and if you check my record,

you'll see that I defied a three-line whip

to oppose that legislation.

Jenni, you saw the worst of it.

HENRY: Yeah, look, um...

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I had to be told

how appalling I was to you, and I have never felt

- such shame... - Henry.

Your letter said it all.

I know the cycles.

My brother also had issues with alcohol.

It's day by day.

Yeah.

Anyway, uh... I want to make

your voters' lives a little easier,

and a banking license will allow Tender to do just that.

First, you need to let us buy this bank.

♪ (PENSIVE DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

The business secretary is going to reason

that Tender's merger with a European bank

like IBN Bauer is anti-competitive.

Consolidation of the banking and fintech sectors

across Europe.

Yeah, well, we don't sell it to Lisa like that.

We sell it to her and the regulator

as the consumer being given a fresh choice,

away from fossilized institutions,

and maybe even an opportunity for a post-Brexit relationship

with the European banking sector.

We don't talk about Brexit.

Yeah, look, nobody believes

we can be the next Silicon Valley.

Nobody believes that we can attract

that kind of direct foreign investment

because of your government's over-regulation.

Every day for the past month, I've walked these floors,

and working with our team, I have never felt more strongly

that this is our chance

to be a genuine leader in a new frontier.

You guys can own it.

Let Tender help you help the government.

Push through the merger.

We're 100 percent net short.

Fads, secular losers, five to ten core shorts

with smaller satellite positions and sector overlay.

Running that concentrated,

you could get taken out by one position.

MICHAEL ABBOTT: The market's way too volatile

to be taking a large short-directional bet. Bonkers.

Short-only, you've essentially given up

before you've even started.

HARPER: You want differentiation.

You see a market that only goes up.

We see a target-rich environment.

The family offices that you invest for,

the clients that you represent,

demand an uncorrelated return profile.

High risk, high reward.

ERIC: I've worked with Harper for many years.

That's a bone-deep moneymaker.

I know her as the woman who petulantly gated her fund.

(UTENSIL CLINKS SOFTLY)

Or the woman who orchestrated her freedom

so she could be stood in front of you today.

INVESTOR 1: Tell me SternTao isn't just two people.

Where's the team?

Who's your trader?

PIERRE WOMACK: In truth, I feel a little disappointed.

I was very excited to meet you both, but...

(BREATHES DEEPLY)

...you've either got a short that puts

the cat inside the pigeon, or you don't.

Who says I don't have that idea?

Eric didn't misspeak about secular losers.

Broken business models? Okay.

Slightly sketchy management teams? Fine.

♪ (INTRIGUING DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

But my real passion lies

with finding dead men walking.

Where the base case is a total reevaluation

and a re-rating of the equity story.

We have our eyes on Tender.

♪ (MUSIC TURNS TENSE) ♪

AVA ANAND: The market is treating that as a growth stock.

What exactly is your thesis?

We have fundamental misgivings about their core offering.

PIERRE: Too high risk for such a generalized,

detail-poor take.

HARPER: Pierre... (CHUCKLES)

...anyone who wants to place money with us

will have full access to our researched view

above and beyond cursory remarks at an introductory breakfast.

(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

FERDINAND SCHWARZWALD On our IBN Bauer merger,

the Prudential Regulation Authority dragging their heels

has allowed a quiet noise in Vienna

- to develop into a bit of a din. - ♪ (TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

FERDINAND: Given the family voted in favor of the merger,

I thought this was a non-issue

I could handle personally without it reaching you.

But the Bauer family still represents two board seats.

Moritz and his mother have been audibly re-litigating

the concerns they raised when we were negotiating.

They've now asked for a sit-down with your executive team.

His opposition is immaterial.

There was a majority vote.

Moritz and his mother voted to sell their family bank.

It's a legacy board seat. They're paid to have no issues.

They're paid to shut the fuck up.

Yeah, we can't strike such a hostile tone.

We have to act quickly here.

The meeting with the regulator is tomorrow,

and we need that banking license.

Bevan's in hand,

but Dearn will be a harder nut to crack.

But this is all for the fucking birds

unless IBN Bauer follow through and sell.

Who's the agitator? The son or the mother?

FERDINAND: The son. Moritz's issue is security.

Says he fears the data

of IBN's banking clients being targeted, harvested,

what have you, post-merger.

LOUISA STÖCKL: Uh, it's ludicrous.

Our anti-fraud systems are state of the art,

and they're an antiquated Austrian bank.

Didn't the Bauers finance the Reich?

It's a bit late to be growing a conscience

on GDPR issues in 2026.

They've given huge financial support

to Shoah survivors. Tens of millions.

No varnish. My reading,

this guy is an Alpine fuckboy with an outsized sense

of his own relevance and recourse.

Sorry to add my voice here, but in my experience,

testy family members respond well to a bit of face time.

You know, an ego massage.

Exactly.

Support scaffold for delusions of his own grandeur.

Working title for my biographer.

- (BOTH CHUCKLE) - (SCATTERED CHUCKLING)

HENRY: Uh, in all seriousness,

we can't risk postponement, or God forbid,

pay the termination fees if this thing falls apart.

I think if they've asked, we should all go.

You know? Multiple faces will make him feel

important and heard.

Lend him our ears. Pretend we're listening.

Come back, deal with the regulator.

- ROBIN WILLIAMSON: Henry, I... - No, no, no... No.

It's his executive decision.

Sorry, I don't mean to be too direct,

but in what capacity are you in this room exactly?

Oh, um, she's a paid consultant,

and, uh... and we need her here.

(INHALES, CHUCKLES)

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

That Tender idea, was that just... contrarianism,

or you think there's a there there?

(CUP CLATTERS)

I read that they're in the process of acquiring

an Austrian bank.

I got a tip that there might be more going on

underneath the hood.

What do you mean a fucking tip?

A journalist shared an unpublished hypothesis.

Does he or his employer have enough caché

that the market will care?

Or is he just a self-published scribbler?

No, he works for FinDigest.

Why the fuck is he leaking this stuff piecemeal to you?

The ethical blowback for him could be huge.

HARPER: (SIGHS) He's sending pre-publication questions

to Tender, but I don't know when he's publishing.

How much does a stock re-rate

when a market darling's been proven to be overvalued?

♪ (SUSPENSEFUL DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

Well...

the operative word there is "proven."

You can't kill a blue chip with a thousand cuts

from some reporter.

Look at Herbalife.

Looks like a pyramid scheme.

Smells like a pyramid scheme.

Ackman intellectually lays out how it functions as one.

Maybe that's the truth.

But what good is the truth? You've got timing.

You got Herbalife's PR machine.

You got Carl Icahn talking up the other side of the trade.

How good a storyteller are you?

And how long can you sustain the story?

Without a smoking gun, you will lose.

Ackman closed out Herbalife, he lost.

So can we prove it? And then...

can we be loud enough?

Short-only work is ugly, hard, investigative.

It's anti-status quo,

anti-establishment...

anti-power.

Which part of that is meant to be a problem for us?

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

- No, no, no. Hold on a sec. Whit? - I'm...

HENRY: FinDigest have just sent pre-publication questions.

Who the fuck is this Dycker guy? Where's he getting it from?

WHITNEY HALBERSTRAM: Ah, it's just conjecture.

Yeah, well, he says, "With these figures in mind..."

- Hayley. - "...it cannot be ruled out

that Tender continues to process illicit transactions,

including gambling and pornography payments

through African jurisdictions,

where such services are legal for non-residents."

I mean, is he saying

we're being willfully blind to money laundering,

or is it intentional? Which is it?

All it demonstrates is his incompetence

in reading a balance sheet

with as many moving parts as ours.

We're not giving this guy oxygen. You know why?

More than likely, he's had some rogue,

trumped-up report slipped to him

by some amateur short-seller

looking to make a quick buck day-trading our shares

when this grubby little piece gets airtime.

Yeah, well, how can you be so sure?

I guarantee he's talking

to someone in the hedge fund community.

It happens all the time in the retail space

with celebrated stories.

It's market manipulation, pure and simple.

There's no large institutional short base

for good reason.

Okay, well, what's our response?

LOUISA: Robust legal action, if needs be.

Regardless of their accusation,

I'll draft up an airtight response.

Their in-house legal will be pushing back

on a lot of this pre-publication.

I think we don't engage.

A story like this could threaten the merger.

Moritz doesn't need another rock to throw.

Yasmin, what do you think?

Well, you know, I don't have the qualifications,

but, um, yeah.

I... I'd say, to Whitney's point,

a blanket statement, if they publish.

"The allegations are spurious," et cetera.

WHITNEY: Yeah, leave it there.

If it even sees daylight.

The story ends where we say it ends.

- (ELEVATOR DINGS) - (DOORS WHIRRING OPEN)

Can I talk to you privately,

- quick? - Yeah. Yeah.

- Of course. - HAYLEY: Okay, thank you.

YASMIN: Uh, I... I'll catch up with you.

HENRY: Yeah, meet us at Farnborough, darling.

Plane sets off in two hours.

(ELEVATOR DOORS CLOSE)

Um...

Um...

I have a confession to make.

YASMIN: Mm-hmm.

Well, yeah. Anything you say stays with me.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I nearly slept with the journalist

asking those questions.

He, like, followed me... like, into a club.

And I think I fell asleep, and I don't...

really remember the play-by-play.

W... Wait, so what, he forced himself on you?

HAYLEY: No.

No, not... not really at all.

I mean...

I was pretty fucked up.

Did you fuck him?

Did you answer any of his questions?

HAYLEY: No.

I hate when men try and take something

that isn't theirs.

(BREATHES DEEPLLY)

(CLEARS THROAT) Well...

thanks for telling me.

I like this transparency, and of course, I, um,

- I... I won't tell anyone. - (SIGHS) Thank you.

Yeah.

When we get there,

feel free to explore Vienna tonight.

- Have the night off. - HAYLEY: Oh, well,

I'm Whitney and Henry's EA, so...

I need to hear from either of them.

YASMIN: Mm.

Great, okay.

- Eric, I got us lunch. - (DOOR CLOSES)

Eric?

TEEN: Are you her?

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

- Who? - You.

- Lara? - Lily.

HARPER: Damn.

You're, like, so grown compared to what was in my head.

You shouldn't really be thinking about me.

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

Tell... Tell Mom you, uh...

(BILLS RUSTLING)

...enjoyed yourself.

I will.

I did, mostly.

(FOOTSTEPS DEPARTING)

ERIC: Okay.

LILY TAO: Bye.

Bye.

(DOORS CLOSES)

How's Operation Normal Guy going?

Having a twin who's better at stuff

like sports and socializing

fosters a bloody resentment of the world.

Who knew?

You have siblings?

I got somewhere with brokers and trading lines.

- I spoke with Kenny. - Goldman still?

I... I'm not sure how he'd feel about covering me

since I fired him on a hangover.

Deutsche Bank.

Fuck, ouch.

I hope he didn't fall off the wagon.

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

Your 3:00 p.m. is here.

So this is your set-up? (CHUCKLES)

HARPER: Yeah, it's a little lo-fi.

Eric handles the overhead.

It's mostly club sandwiches and fries.

- (SWEETPEA GOLIGHTLY CHUCKLES) - How's Mostyn's?

SWEETPEA: Ooh.

Hmm, the misogyny swings

between patronizing and lecherous.

- HARPER: God. - I don't know.

Sometimes, I... I feel like, um...

Cherry pie left on the windowsill?

It's a bunch of men running around

hitting themselves over the head with a hammer

like fucking cartoon wolves.

(LAUGHS) Yeah.

Well, it's my own fault, so...

HARPER: Hey.

No, it's not.

No, it's not.

That Siren leak was not your fault.

You did something for you,

and some asshole made it... not for you.

And I hope he fucking suffers for it.

Thank you.

When you sent me that email about Tender,

you piqued my interest.

And you know what I'm like. I couldn't stop looking.

Mostyn would never.

Tender's IPO deck from two years ago.

Compare it to their annual reports.

What am I looking at?

They use euphemisms about the kind of payments

they're processing. "Emotional content" is porn.

"Gaming" is gambling.

Clearly, that is a key source of their revenue back then,

but since the IPO and over the next five years,

the EMEA region is maturing

into a key driver of their growth.

And that's not possible?

No, I'm not saying it's not possible

for EMEA acquisitions to drive growth.

I'm saying that this...

- (TOILET FLUSHING) - ...constant erratic evolution

of their strategy isn't even slightly reflected

in their... in their projections.

So much risk isn't baked into the share price.

- The... - ERIC: Hi again, Sweetpea!

Hi! Hi, Eric!

So... (CLEARS THROAT) ...if your thesis is correct,

they're still continuing to process illegal payments,

even though they've made overtures

that they're stepping away from this

as their core business.

I mean, in any case, it's primed

for a mega correction and re-rating.

Analysts are recommending 25 Buys, 2 Sells.

SWEETPEA: Mm. Incentive and groupthink.

The star fintech analyst at MS, he's just upgraded,

a couple of smaller places followed.

The market's reading Muck's appointment

as a positive catalyst, not sure why.

ERIC: Even a basket case could win

if enough influence wanted it to.

Yeah, well, nobody wants to stand

in front of a moving train.

Nobody wants to get off it when it's full of cash.

(SWEETPEA CHUCKLES)

- Thank you. - My pleasure.

HARPER: We would love you to come on full time.

- (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) - (KNOCKING ON DOOR)

Don't know if you can make head or tail of it,

- but it's what you asked for. - Anywhere is fine.

What the...

Sorry, what the fuck is he doing here?

- (BOX THUDS) - SWEETPEA: No, genuinely,

stay the fuck away from me,

- honestly. - I am not staying.

You're working with this piece of shit?

We're helping him out a little.

You're... (SCOFFS) Um...

This guy is a fucking psychotic liar,

a fucking pathological degenerate.

I have read every horrible detail.

ERIC: Sweetpea, relax.

Don't tell me to fucking relax. He's a fucking murderer.

I'm not, okay? I'm not a murderer.

Please, just stay the fuck away from me.

I'm not a murderer!

If you put me in a room with this cunt again,

you will never hear from me again, okay?

Yeah. Yeah.

(RECEDING DEPARTING)

(RISHI RAMDANI SIGHS)

Looks good.

♪ ("O DU MEIN ÖSTERREICH" BY FRANZ VON SUPPÉ PLAYING) ♪

- YASMIN: Hello. - CASTLE HELP: Welcome.

Please come with me.

- (EXHALES) - (CAR DOOR CLOSES)

(FERDINAND SPEAKING GERMAN)

HENRY: Hope it's got a fucking loo.

FERDINAND: Moritz.

Ferdinand.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

(FERDINAND GREETS IN GERMAN)

This is Tender's new CEO...

- Hi. - ...Henry Muck.

Moritz-Hunter Bauer.

I think we had mutual friends at Winchester.

I was unlucky enough to spend five years at Harrow.

I tell you, for every genuine homosexual,

nine are created by British boarding schools.

- (LAUGHS) - FERDINAND: And his wife, Yasmin.

I also do some comms consulting for Henry's office.

- Hi. - MORITZ-HUNTER BAUER: A pleasure.

My mother, Princess Johanna.

Welcome.

- Thank you. - JOHANNA BAUER: It's a pleasure.

Well, look, um, Moritz, we're here to assure you

that we will be dutiful custodians

of your family's bank...

Part of the depredations

of neoliberal late capitalism is

there is no central authority to appeal to.

Just a patchwork of economic zones

to facilitate capital flight.

We'll be subsumed, unhappily, and say,

"Ah, it's the free market. This is supposed to happen."

Well, Tender doesn't want you to be unhappy.

Happiness is a full stomach, Mr. Halberstram.

So let's save this conversation for dinner, yeah?

JOHANNA: What a splendid idea of yours.

Allow me to show you to your rooms.

- Please, after you. - YASMIN: Oh, fantastic.

- (DOOR OPENS) - AUTOMATED VOICE: (OVER PHONE) Hello.

- You've reached Tender. - ♪ ("ORINOCO FLOW" BY ENYA PLAYING ON PHONE) ♪

- (DOOR CLOSES) - AUTOMATED VOICE: Your call is important to us.

Please continue to hold

while we find the next available operator.

- What are you looking for? - AUTOMATED VOICE: Or press zero...

HARPER: Uh, I don't know, actually.

Patterns in Tender's payment transaction history,

routed through their EMEA acquisitions.

Didn't you tell me you had plans tonight?

This shit ain't going anywhere.

Yeah, I'm not sure that I should.

You're not sure you should? Is it a dude?

Go. Operation Normal Girl.

Go!

HARPER: I've tried calling four of the payment processors

they acquired in Africa.

Every time I was put on this eternal fucking hold

through Tender's Dublin call center.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Hello. You've reached Tender.

- Your call is important to us. - HARPER: Ugh, this endless

- fucking Muzak. Shut up. - AUTOMATED VOICE: Please continue...

- (ERIC LAUGHS) - (BREATHES DEEPLY)

I genuinely feel like I'm losing my grip on reality.

Pierre called.

Good news is he thinks Tender,

at the very least, feels toppy.

Bad news is he wants...

quite specific terms and structure.

How aggressive?

ERIC: He wants a first-loss arrangement.

Pierre acts as guarantor.

I put up ten million dollars.

He puts up 90.

But the first ten million the fund loses

is my ten million.

Depending on how our main position performed,

I might have to liquidate my family office...

my girls' inheritance.

HARPER: I would literally never ask you to do that.

Don't really see where that leaves the health

of our little venture here, then.

Unless we find our short, raise capital

and put a team together,

we're gonna be stalled on the launch pad.

We don't even have a trader, for fuck's sake.

Maybe get the fuck outta here for a bit.

HARPER: I want to work.

ERIC: Hey, I've lived a life where everything is work.

I've lived a life where everything is leisure.

I'm telling you,

for a few hours on a Tuesday evening,

there's a middle ground.

This is all gonna be here when you get back.

- (KNOCKING ON DOOR) - (DOOR OPENS)

I just came to settle you in.

I hope you feel comfortable.

I put you in my favorite room.

Oh!

It's full of our habseligkeiten.

Do you know this word?

(IN GERMAN)

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

(IN ENGLISH) Well, you know, literally translated,

it means "possessions closest to your soul."

- That's beautiful. - JOHANNA: Hmm.

(IN GERMAN)

(CHUCKLES)

JOHANNA: (IN ENGLISH) Well,

if you need anything, just let me know.

- Danke schoen. - JOHANNA: Gern.

(CHUCKLES)

(DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)

I... I admire the UK system.

The pendulum swings, of course,

but at least you don't muzzle insurgents.

Well, your mother tells me

that you were a bit of a historian.

Most of our political quagmire can be answered

- by the early modern period. - YASMIN: Hmm.

That's why my political hero is... (IN FRENCH) ...Louis XIV.

(IN ENGLISH) All answers lie with the Sun King.

I'm sorry. I, uh...

I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that.

- (BOTH CHUCKLE) - (YASMIN LAUGHS)

Eh, anyone with eyes can see Western liberalism has failed.

Decades of political gridlock,

partisan divisions accelerated by social media,

a short-term policy driven by a need to win elections.

The most successful central government in the world today

functions as an absolute monarchy,

and for that, calls itself communism.

Okay, Moritz.

This isn't very riveting dinner conversation.

YASMIN: Oh, Johanna, please sit down.

We can't have you wait on us.

Oh, please. It's an absolute privilege.

Oh, um, I read your Substack.

- MORITZ: I'm flattered. - Yeah.

Uh, fragmentation

and the acceleration of atomization,

it is killing us as a species.

Take any successful corporation in America.

They're not a collectivist enterprise,

they're dictatorships.

Then why do Foxconn and many industrial parks need

worker-suicide nets?

All I'm saying is that they are not democracies.

FERDINAND: Sad...

that we must always wash up on the reef of politics.

JOHANNA: Oh, I couldn't agree more.

- So, bon appétit. - (UTENSILS CLINKING)

- YASMIN: Thank you. - (HENRY CLEARS THROAT)

MORITZ: Although, for me,

my, uh, politics and my business,

to the extent to which it still is mine,

are one and the same.

What some see as protectionism, isolationism,

I see as respect for tradition.

IBN Bauer is a 300-year-old institution.

I'm concerned this merger represents

a threat to our customers' privacy.

I do know how fast and loose modern fintech companies play

with their customers' data.

HENRY: Moritz, um...

this merger, it represents growth for both parties.

We respect the past, um,

but we will drag IBN Bauer into the future.

(CLOCK TICKING)

I'm speaking to Julian Wullschläger

and others on the board to ensure

that this merger receives the full scrutiny it deserves,

even if that means re-engaging the Austrian regulator

around data protection.

Train's left the station.

You thought because I am a small individual voice,

the weight of your capital would bury me?

You voted for this,

and you'll be compensated incredibly well.

Ah, it's always money,

(STERNLY) ...Mr. HalberSchtram?

JOHANNA: Moritz, it's enough said.

(SPEAKING GERMAN)

- I never mean to embarrass you. - I know, Schatz.

We just have to be practical and just humor him.

There's practicality,

and then there's acquiescing to some tinpot tyrant.

Fine, he's a bit of an intellectual pseud.

No, no, no, he's a fucking fascist.

We're his guests! You want

to fucking call him out in front of his mum?

What about that thinly-veiled anti-Semitism, hmm?

That's not what that was, come on.

- Whitney. - For someone whose last name is Hanani,

you seem pretty relaxed.

We need to fly out as early as possible.

But this is now a live issue.

I don't think it's a very bright idea

to just abandon the problem and hope for the best.

HENRY: Yeah, but we can't no-show with the regulator.

We have to fly out first thing.

Okay, I'm staying. I insist.

(JOHANNA AND MORITZ ARGUING IN GERMAN)

You're lucky your wife is such a pragmatist.

(YASMIN CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

♪ ("SUKIYAKI" BY KYU SAKAMOTO PLAYING) ♪

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

(GLASSES CLINKING)

(CHATTER CONTINUES)

KWABENA BANNERMAN: Hey. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

HARPER: I've been sitting here for 15 fucking minutes.

KWABENA: Bro. Fuck.

Whole civilizations have risen and fallen in 15 minutes.

(CHATTER CONTINUES)

Hey, hey!

I was joking. What the fuck?

I'm trying to build a business.

I don't have 15 minutes.

So for the two I plan to stand right here,

I might as well tell you that I fucked somebody else.

Okay.

Okay, you don't care?

KWABENA: What, in the last 15 minutes?

(CHUCKLING) Remind me never to be late again.

Were you gonna say that before I was late?

Is it even true?

Are you not sleeping with other people?

No.

Not as far as I'm aware.

Okay.

Do you want to put a pin in this, then?

I just thought we were hanging out.

But you like me?

You make it pretty fucking hard.

But yeah, if you'll let me.

(HESITATES)

You're a tiny bit too punctual, though.

It's my... It's my only note.

Be on time.

I have a job that I left to be with you.

KWABENA: Yeah, so leave it there.

God, we both came here for biodynamic sake

and maybe some mutual fellatio.

Try separating church and state sometimes.

It's easy.

Yeah, fuck this.

I actually came to offer you a job. (SCOFFS)

KWABENA: Really?

Maybe this relationship is done better over email.

Harper.

(RAISES VOICE) What's prompted this enormous sense

of humor failure?

Harper?

- ♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪ - (DOOR SLAMS SHUT)

How was it?

- I hope that means good. - (OBJECTS CLATTERING)

ERIC: You mind me being this casually dressed?

Don't be so fucking weird.

Hard-coded, I'm afraid.

You good on presents?

What are 14-year-old girls into?

How the fuck should I know?

You should know what your daughters like

and dislike.

I followed up with the rest of the family offices.

In truth, I... I had to chase.

A few eyes were on stalks

at you suggesting Tender was anything

but a blue-chip safe haven.

I dropped Tender to be spiky and controversial

in a meeting that I thought was headed south.

It's gonna take labor and sweat,

and turning stones, and fucking time.

ERIC: I have plenty of time.

If that's all you've got to offer me,

I think we should reevaluate what's going on here.

Why are you being so sharp with me?

Because this is not some recreational fucking... game

or some lame extension of your retirement,

while you're floating around trying to rehab your life,

or, I don't know, cosplaying the roles

that you have spent your life ignoring.

When the fuck did I ever say

I wanted it to be recreational?

If you don't want my daughter in our workspace...

When the fuck did I say that?

ERIC: You seem a little triggered is all.

Tri... Sorry, triggered?

Who the fuck uses that word seriously?

Are you kidding me?

Shit that people fucking say,

"Oh, my trauma made me stronger."

No, no!

My trauma traumatized me.

And it made me fucking weak.

And I have had to deal with consequences

that were not my fault.

And it has nothing to do

with what I am doing right now!

Do you know why I do this?

Because I enjoy it,

and I'm fucking good at it!

It starts and ends with work

and being proven fucking right.

(SIGHS HEAVILY)

(ASHTRAY CLINKING SOFTLY)

This is life or death for me.

You used to act like it too.

(ASHTRAY CLINKING SOFTLY)

Sounds like you're a little triggered.

Okay.

I can act like it.

And you...

you come to meetings I spend days wrangling

with ideas that aren't half-baked.

(HARPER SIGHS)

(SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE)

Do you know I'm a twin?

No, because you've never mentioned it.

Uh, I did a cursory Google.

A good percentage of the addresses

and contact numbers of these acquisitions are listed

to the same place.

- Guess. - I'm too tired.

The Dublin call center.

HARPER: An impasse then?

ERIC: I thought so too.

Plus, I'm not sure it's altogether incriminating,

but I did notice something in the documents.

- It's printed small... - ♪ (INTRIGUING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

...but on every hundredth or so page,

there's a "care of" address. See?

Google Street View, it looks like...

well, it doesn't look like much.

I... I sorta want to use the term... "shithole."

HARPER: Show me.

ERIC: That can't be right, right?

Does it look like a satellite office

of an enterprise with a nine billion market cap?

Who, what, or where is Sunderland?

Sounds cold.

- SWEETPEA: (OVER PHONE) Hello? - HARPER: Hey, Sweetpea.

Um, I'm really, really sorry about today.

- SWEETPEA: No shit. - And I know that you said

that you were going to take a beat, but, um...

swing time for a field trip?

I think this may satisfy your curiosity,

and I need your expertise.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

(ANIMALS HOWLING IN DISTANCE)

Hi, um...

Whitney wanted me to share

three different versions of prospective rebuttals

to the FinDigest article.

(CHUCKLES) You could have emailed them.

- (CHUCKLES) - HAYLEY: Yeah.

Right. (CHUCKLES) Sorry.

Sorry, I didn't, um...

YASMIN: Can I smell martinis on your breath?

Raya must see a pretty lean scene in Vienna.

- (BOTH CHUCKLE) - (DOOR OPENS, CLOSES)

- Hi, Hayley. - HAYLEY: Hi.

- HENRY: Sorry. - It's okay.

Calabasas here just tried and failed to get laid.

(LAUGHS)

Well, Yasmin, I'm sure she doesn't want us speculating

about her youthful misadventures.

Well, I'm not speculating.

Tell him. (CHUCKLES)

HAYLEY: She's right.

But more like, he tried and failed. (CHUCKLES)

(CHUCKLES) Classic.

Well, I mean...

you're too good for most.

She's very frustrated.

Aren't you, Hayley?

I don't... I don't know if I'd say that.

A little.

Sure.

Yas, what the fuck are you doing?

Hayley...

- Come here. - HENRY: (WHISPERING) Yas, Yas, you're all I need.

YASMIN: Do you, um...

Do you like him?

Do you...

- ...like this? - (HENRY MOANS DEEPLY)

♪ ("BASSICALLY" BY TEI SHI PLAYING) ♪

(HENRY SIGHS HEAVILY)

Do you want to kiss him?

I want this for you.

- Um... - ♪ Baby, I'll behave... ♪

Do you... (HESITATES) Do you want this?

Mm-hmm.

♪ If you let me stay ♪

♪ Please don't think ♪

♪ That I'm begging you For love ♪

♪ Baby, let me stay ♪

♪ When the world is gone ♪

♪ Promise I'll behave ♪

♪ Never right your wrongs ♪

(BREATHES HEAVILY)

- ♪ Is that what you want? ♪ - ♪ Is that what you want? ♪

♪ Like the other boys ♪

♪ Someone you can flaunt ♪

♪ Like the other toys ♪

Good. (EXHALES)

Now spit on it.

(HAYLEY HAWKS SPIT, SPUTTERS)

(EXHALES)

(MOANS DEEPLY, SIGHS)

(HENRY BREATHING HEAVILY)

(HAYLEY GASPING)

- ♪ (MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪ - (HENRY, HAYLEY GRUNTING)

(HENRY GASPS, WHIMPERS)

YASMIN: Calabasas, look at me.

- (HAYLEY GASPING) - (HENRY PANTING)

(HENRY PANTING)

♪ (SOFT INTRIGUING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

YASMIN: Get off her, Henry.

(FLUIDS SQUELCHING)

- (HAYLEY PANTING) - (BED CREAKING)

Now turn around on the bed,

open your legs and show me your cunt.

(EXHALES)

- (PANTING) - (BED CREAKING)

(EXHALES HEAVILY)

Now I believe you have something that belongs to my husband.

And therefore, to me.

(SLURPING)

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

(GULPS)

(BURPS)

JOHANNA: Well, it seems the men have been scattered

by the wind.

They've abandoned you with me.

Help me take the dogs out.

Moritz's name on the bank is no more

than an honorific, really.

And he knows

that the Tender deal is a good deal.

He just craves attention.

YASMIN: How so?

Well, he simply doesn't want to be defined

by his family name only.

- (BIRDS CHIRPING) - (DOG BARKING)

W... Well, I mean,

I could speak to one of Alexander's editors.

Yeah, even if it's a one-off column,

it will make Moritz feel

like the world's actually listening to him for once.

- This is such a wonderful idea. - (CHUCKLES)

You know, I think seeing his thinking valorized

by Norton masthead,

I think this would give him meaning.

- Mm-hmm. - You know, even if it's just

for an instant, to see his name,

his view printed, black and white.

Yeah, I mean, legacy media still has weight.

Yes, the weight of history.

Yeah, he has a way for not couching his views

for polite company.

But the general direction of travel

of his thinking is undergirded by common sense,

wouldn't you say?

He... (BURPS) Oh.

Sorry. (CHUCKLES)

Yeah.

Yeah. I would.

♪ ("HORST-WESSEL-LIED" BY MILVA PLAYING) ♪

- (WHISTLES) - (DOG BARKS)

- (JOHANNA WHISTLING) - (DOG BARKING)

♪ ("HORST-WESSEL-LIED" CONTINUES PLAYING) ♪

♪ (VOCALIST SINGING IN ITALIAN) ♪

♪ (SINGING IN ITALIAN CONTINUES) ♪

♪ (SINGING IN ITALIAN CONTINUES) ♪

♪ (SINGING IN ITALIAN CONTINUES) ♪

♪ (SINGING IN ITALIAN CONTINUES) ♪

- ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪ - EDWARD BURGESS: Fuckin' James.

James!

FINDIGEST STAFF: 1,800 comments on this piece

about parents helping their kids buy

shoebox properties in London.

I haven't had a postbag this full

since that piece about the beauty

of London's mosques.

You asked for the right to reply?

Yeah. Yeah, just nothing back as of yet.

Cunts.

(HESITATES) Why wait to publish?

I mean, we know they're just gonna say

the allegations are baseless

and pull up a drawbridge.

What? "Tender, investigated.

The high-growth fintech company's results

lack transparency and should spook investors."

Oh, fucking hell, can't we be blunter?

I mean, "Ex-porn payments company still

illegally processing porn payments?"

(CHUCKLES) James, you failed to have noticed,

the night lawyer wants to take out

a large chunk of your copy.

JIM: How much?

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- Oh, fuck off. - EDWARD: Mm.

See, you can't imply circuitous accounting without evidence.

We don't have the luxury of speculating

without an insider.

Why are you so desperate to get this

out of here half-cooked?

Ah, 'cause Paddy Radden Keefe or someone will get the scent

and a serious outlet with budget will beat us to it.

Look, mate, all I'm saying is the faster we publish,

the safer my man will feel going on record.

Now, you know I have someone who may,

they may, play ball in corroborating this.

You know he's too intimidated to do it electronically.

Well, these guys, they're fucking litigious.

So it either goes out with the changes,

or it doesn't go out at all.

- Sorry. - (JIM GRUMBLES)

All right.

Uh, yeah... Yeah, fuck it, print it.

It's a start.

But if you won't unlock budget for me to go to Accra,

I guess I'll book my own fucking ticket, yeah?

- BURGESS: Hmm. - JIM: Yeah.

You prat!

(DOOR CLOSES)

HARPER: Took fucking long to get here.

It's a bit sketchy.

SWEETPEA: I grew up on a street like this.

So we gonna tell 'em we're in finance or what?

Just let me handle it.

- (DOORBELL RINGS) - (DOOR OPENS)

Hiya.

We're actually from the Office of National Statistics.

We might have rung your bell by mistake, so forgive me.

- No worries. - SWEETPEA: No, sorry.

We were under the impression that this was an office.

Is there anyone who works here?

ALISON STODDART: Well, me... me son works from home.

(MOUSE CLICKS)

You girls okay?

BOTH: Fine.

JEFFREY STODDART: So I get a ton of emails

from various payment sites in Africa.

That's the graft, really.

The amount.

Lots of attachments.

- Can you show me one attachment? - JEFFREY: Sure.

(MOUSE CLICKS)

- JEFFREY: It's... - Transactions.

JEFFREY: Yeah.

How'd you know?

What do you do with them?

JEFFREY: Well, it's loads of transactions at different price points.

I collate them and bucket them.

It's not all that taxing, like.

Don't put yourself down. Work is work.

JEFFREY: So anywhere between zero pound

and 12 pound gets labelled "PZ202."

Whereas between 12 and 80 gets "PZ303."

Eighty and 200. 200 and 500, it goes on.

And those buckets populate a new spreadsheet...

- (MOUSE CLICKS) - ...here.

ALISON: I'm just popping out, Jeffrey, love.

♪ (INTRIGUING DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

He's not...

building the charts in Tender's earnings report.

Um, Jeffrey, do you mind if I just note

some of those codes down?

So, every one of Tender's available transactions is coded

- by hand by gorgeous Jeffrey. - Yeah.

They must have a dozen Jeffreys,

coding by price, not by origination or service.

And that is how they're hiding the porn

and the gambling, right? So they're recording it, then...

Yeah. So, like, if you buy hardcore porn,

or flowers for your nan,

or you piss away your money at roulette,

- it is all categorized the same. - Ah.

I mean, as long as it roughly costs the same.

It's just like one big bucket of slop called "consumables."

Right. Well, we have to see this through.

- Yeah, I agree! - Okay.

- Fuck me! - (LAUGHS)

Fuck us! That was such a fucking mental buzz!

Sweetpea.

Come work with me. Please.

Harper, you left Petra. And you left Mostyn.

I need your word

that you will actually see this through.

No distractions.

Understood.

If you come, you have my word.

Okay.

(CHUCKLES)

Great. Get Eric on your phone.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

HARPER: James, it's Harper.

What if I told you you were 100 percent correct

on your Tender payments laundry thesis?

Well, as you'll no doubt remember,

earlier this year, Lisa, your government

promised to "rip up the bureaucracy

that blocks investment" and urged the regulator,

that's you, Colin, to "take growth seriously."

Blocking this deal would, um, break both those promises.

Global innovators, large and small,

would take note that,

despite the Labour Party's often, um... lofty rhetoric,

the UK is closed for business.

It would represent a major blow to UK citizens,

who currently at least, remain largely

in the dark about how parlous

their economic circumstances really are.

LISA DEARN: Noblesse oblige,

aristocracy-knows-best type stuff.

(SCOFFS) It's hard to stomach from you.

People have short memories.

I see my role in politics

as maintaining a very long one.

And that includes seeing

through a charlatan's rebranding.

And I haven't forgotten making you squirm

during the Lumi inquiry.

♪ (TENSE DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

It would be an act of narcissism,

bordering on self-harm, to allow personal history

to deliver a fatal blow

to what we're on the verge of achieving here.

This merger will give us a banking license,

- meaning more choice, lower prices... - (DOOR OPENS)

...a wave of innovation to follow in our slipstream.

Bold statements, but they're hardly backed up

in any of the literature that you've...

Ricky Martyn, with a Y.

WHITNEY: Ah.

Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister.

So the floor's all yours, I'm all ears.

- (FINGERS SNAP) - Oi, did you know about this?

DEARN: Ricky, thanks for stepping in.

You interrupted my next...

You interrupted my next question,

which was to Colin.

Uh, how does anything we've heard have any bearing

on whether a merger with an Austrian bank

represents an antitrust issue?

- The banking system... - WHITNEY: Colin, the complaints

you've heard from our rivals are obfuscating their real fear.

They're not scared of a reduction in competition.

- They're scared of an increase of it. - (SCOFFS)

WHITNEY: This is an objectively pro-competitive deal.

Colin. Ricky, Jennifer, Lisa, it's not just a question

of whether Labour's Britain is pro-business.

It's about whether Labour is pro-reducing financial fraud,

pro-teaching financial hygiene to its electorates,

pro-the consumer's agency in his own financial life.

Your last government isolated you from Europe.

I urge you to see this as a first

of many necessary steps towards reintegration.

Don't you think?

WHITNEY: Henry!

(HENRY CLEARS THROAT)

Uh, sorry. Yeah. You know, of course. Yeah.

COLIN CULLEN: As I understand it,

your securing of an Austrian banking license

to trade in the EU will be followed

by an application for a UK license.

We're a UK company.

- That's not how... - RICKY MARTYN: Colin,

the PM wants it stated in here

how much he admires Tender's vision

for making Britain the fintech capital of Europe,

if not the world.

(HESITATING) And we respect the PRA's independence

and honor their decisions.

Lisa, we could sidebar with Colin

about this later, I'm sure.

HENRY: Thank you, Ricky.

♪ (TENSE DREAMY MUSIC RISES) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

HENRY: Whitney was right.

The FinDigest piece reads like sensationalist nonsense

to manipulate the share price.

Louisa's drafting a response.

I guess this is why Moritz backed out.

Yeah, Alexander put me in touch with Percy

in the opinion pages.

So,

you went behind my back

to my uncle... to give this guy a platform?

Alexander agreed with me, Henry.

It's soft-skill negotiation.

This isn't some crank writing in The Spectator,

"In Defense of The Wehrmacht."

This is a national newspaper with responsibility.

It's a kook running his mouth.

- It's, you know... - It's... It's what?

It's tomorrow's fucking chip paper?

Don't be so fucking naive.

(SCOFFS)

Don't you think you should be thanking me?

I mean, the deal wouldn't have gone through

without me giving Moritz this opportunity.

HENRY: What you did with Hayley...

(SCOFFS)

HENRY: ...didn't feel right.

You know I'm an addict.

It felt very like... enabler behavior.

YASMIN: You wanted her, Henry.

So you fucked her.

I was just bold enough to know what to give you.

HAYLEY: Hi.

(HESITATES)

Big weekend, Calabasas?

I'm too young for hangovers.

Uh, your morning is pretty stacked,

and I booked your car for 7:00 tonight

for your dinner at Arlington.

Did I book that?

Uh, she did.

Do you want to join us for a nightcap, Hayley?

I mean, there are some introductions

that we can make for you.

Yeah, I... I have plans, but I could cancel...

- easily. - HENRY: No, no, no.

Keep your plans, Hayley.

(INDISTINCT DISTANT CHATTER)

Who the fuck did I marry?

(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

Shouldn't you know that, darling?

♪ ("ORINOCO FLOW" BY ENYA PLAYING) ♪

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

FinDigest's article hasn't been as stock negative as I'd hoped.

The market eventually will be forced

to price Tender's deception,

and they will punish them for it.

No guarantee.

- (CELL PHONE BUZZING) - SWEETPEA: Hiya.

The Sunderland discovery puzzle piece is useless

to the market without the full image.

It's as good as a hunch

without a groundswell of investor sentiment behind it.

I thought the trader you hired was supposed to show to this?

Ah.

I agreed to Pierre's terms, by the way.

I told you I didn't want that from you.

Well, you have it.

I gave it to you.

And all I ask...

is that we widen the perimeter of what we consider to be

acceptable discourse between us.

I won't hurt you just by knowing you.

I really appreciate your financial backing.

It is more than I deserve.

And I will break my back

to ensure that your faith is rewarded. (BREATHES DEEPLY)

But it is already a miracle that we are in any position

to be working together again.

And you and I both know...

that nothing good comes from us being

any more intimate than that.

Ah!

Deutsche! Goldman spit you out?

Well, the universe has quiet designs

- to keep us humble. - HARPER: Huh.

- KENNY KILBANE: Just come this way. - HARPER: Okay.

So, we would like to place a short with you.

Buy-side is full of tyrants who deny their tyranny.

Sell-side is full of slaves who deny their servitude.

Somewhere in the middle, all of human life.

- Right. - (CHUCKLES)

How does it feel to finally have the power?

A constant nerve-jangling desire to enshrine it.

- (LAUGHS) - KWABENA: Harp!

- I'm sorry I'm late. - ELEVATOR VOICE: Door opening.

- ERIC: This your man? - Yes.

- Eric. - KWABENA: Kwabena.

♪ Turn it up, turn it up... ♪

ERIC: Kenny, I wanted...

I'm just glad I got a chance to say sorry.

I am. I am sorry.

Well...

it's not the worst thing anyone's ever done.

ELEVATOR VOICE: Door closing.

(DOORS THUD, ECHO)

♪ ("ORINOCO FLOW" BY ENYA CONTINUES) ♪

♪ Sail away Sail away, sail away ♪

♪ From the North to the South Ebudae unto Khartoum ♪

♪ From the deep Sea of Clouds To the Island of the Moon ♪

♪ Carry me on the waves To the land I've never been ♪

♪ Carry me on the waves ♪

♪ To the lands I've never seen ♪

♪ We can sail, we can sail ♪

♪ With the Orinoco Flow ♪

♪ We can sail, we can sail ♪

♪ Sail away Sail away, sail away ♪

♪ We can steer, we can near With Rob Dickins at the wheel ♪

♪ We can sail, we can sail ♪

♪ Sail away Sail away, sail away ♪

♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪