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So here we are at the seventh and final episode of the pandemic-shortened fourth season, and this episode was a doozy, keeping hearts pounding througout even if the final shot was a bit … goofy. But what is going on with the opening titles? The songs used for the last two episodes really did not fit with the visuals of stuff blowing up. It was very disjointed because one would assume they have a recording of the show’s terrific opening theme music somewhere, even if they have been editing the show remotely. It was just … weird.
As far as the episode, boy was there a lot going on which makes this being the last episode for the season even more frustrating. Will they finish the story next season? The show has a thing about rebooting each season with something new, as they did this year with RBL being sold to STR Laurie. And that merger is the key element in this week’s episode. And there is the unusual move of the show taking on a very real incident focusing on some very real people (and it’s a wonder CBS even let this pass through by using so many real names). Of course it’s a highly fictionalized version of reality … or is it? Let the conspiracy theories begin!
The real case Liz Reddick was brought into was the investigation of the death of Jeffrey Epstein. Was it murder or suicide? There are too many questions and too many high profile people connected to the case to make it seem like suicide, and with people like the Attorney General for the United States involved, the federal investigators need an independent legal team to suss out the truth without any censorship or interference. And if things go well, RBL can expect a lot more high paying cases like this one. Skeptical at first, Liz agrees to head up the investigation unaware of the Pandora’s Box she’s about to open.
The first matter is to keep everyone on the trail of facts, not conspiracy theories and left or right politics. But each piece of evidence they examine leads them down a rabbit hole of more and more evidence, making it impossible to separate fact from fiction. Things take a turn when Lucca recognizes a celebrity hair stylist to the stars in a photograph leaving the plane with Epstein the day he was arrested. Knowing Andreas is Bianca’s stylist — and has apparently taken care of Lucca’s hair as well — she goes to him for info. And he has a bombshell: an envelope that he was supposed to deliver to Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, but she never showed up and Andreas believes she may be dead too.
Given permission to open the envelope after Andreas turns it over to Lucca, Liz and the team find a nondescript key inside, as well as a handwritten note asking the recipient that if he was dead to watch out for BUD. There’s also a strange series of numbers written inside the envelope that Jay and Marissa work on deciphering. But the biggest question is who is BUD? Is it a name, initials? There is a lawyer with those initials and he did work with Epstein but there is no love lost between them so that is a dead end. But many people do recall hearing Epstein talk about BUD, even with the New York millionaire who is now president at an event where they were hanging out with women much too young to be with them. One of the women also remembers hearing them both talk about BUD but she didn’t know exactly what BUD was.
Marissa and Jay try to put a lock with the key and she visits Epstein’s architect but she hates him as much as everyone else does so she wan’t much help. But one of the blueprints did have BUD written on it, a temple Epstein has built in the Virgin Islands (and yes, this is a real place that has been severely damaged by Hurricans Irma and Maria, which blew off the golden dome that still exists in this TV version, and in fact the large wooden doors the investigators enter through are in reality a painted mural on the building). What will Marissa and Jay find there? Evidence of Epstein’s child sexual abuse? No, it seems the building is just a storage locker for all of Epstein’s collected treasures. And even when Jay notices a door with a lock and Marissa uses the key to open it, all the find is an empty room. By this point, the pair had gotten a call from Liz that, after presenting their evidence that came off as just more conspiracy theories, they were taken off the case so they did not look any further into the empty room … and they should have.
Before going to the island, Jay and Marissa had deciphered the code inside the envelope. Jay was able to determine that a name Epstein had written, Lady M.S., was the name of a character (Lady Morgan Sydney) in a science fiction novel about outer space child sex trafficking, ‘Space Relations’, written by Donald Barr, father of the current Attorney General (many call this very real novel Epstein’s ‘Bible’). The numbers were a page-line-word code and they discovered the code read ‘Call Bill He Will Have Twelve Hours’. Bill who? Barr? Clinton? As the message was meant for Ghislaine, it almost certainly was meant for Barr, whom many have now suggested was the mysterious visitor at the prison the nigh Epstein died and who also took the body to the temple in the Virgin Islands (an online conspiracy theory suggests Epstein’s crypt is empty). But the investigators found no evidence of a body at the temple … but they didn’t go far enough into that empty room. As we the viewers saw, there was a hidden staircase that went down into another chamber in which one device contained what we can assume is Epstein’s brain (he was heavily into cryogenics and wanted to be frozen at death and revived at some point) and in the other … what we must assume is Epstein’s genitals with a name plaque below: BUD. That was a long way to go for such a cheap shot joke, but it was a fun journey getting there.
But in the background there were more serious issues facing RBL and Julius. Diane and Julius made an appointment to speak with the Inspector General about Memo 618 and she swore he would be protected against anything he stated. On his way home that night he was arrested on some trumped up charges of accepting a bribe, and Diane can only assume this is retribution for talking and the IG was the one who sent the cops after him. She got him out on bail but now they have an uphill battle to fight.
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And RBL is being forced to lay off 20% of their staff by STR Laurie head Gavin Firth. He just wants them to pick the names and he’ll handle the legal work on his end. Rumors swirl through the firm that they are laying off 40% of the workforce, but Adrian, Diane and Liz have not had any discussions with the lawyers or associates. And they all have pros and cons about specific people to let go. Do they need two investigators? Who is expendable, Jay or Marissa? Diane can live without one lawyer and Liz says that lawyer deserves a raise. Adrian finally concludes that they can’t let anyone go because once they do, STR Laurie will completely consume RBL. The only reason they bought RBL was to have some diversity in their portfolio. But there is an out — within the first year the partners can buy back RBL for $20 million. It’s a huge sum and Adrian says they can make it work with a bank loan and putting their houses on the line as collateral. Neither Liz or Diane are comfortable with that but they tell Adrian to talk to the bank to see what they can do.
And he gets the loan, so all they have to do is present the offer to Firth … and that goes terribly sideways when Firth tells them the price is $80 million. It was only $20 million if the partners had more billable hours within that first year than they did the year before. And that’s when Diane realized she’d been set up when he put her in charge of the pro bono cases. As Firth gloats to the three partners, ‘You’re fucked.’ So, when the show returns will we get to see how this battle plays out, or will we just move forward in time with a quick recap or one-off premiere episode like how this season began. Will this whole season be Diane’s dream? Hopefully we’ll find out sometime next year.
What did you think of this episode? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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