Not since colonial times has New York City been the government capital of the nation. Yes, New York was once the nation's capital, as was Philadelphia. Washington, D.C. was not the first choice, but rather became the last choice. It's not moving now. Unless you are the Showtime writers.
Albany has been the capital of New York State for...forever. State capitals were generally located somewhat in the center of a state to allow for equal travel to it for all the elected state representatives. The horse or stage coach ride was designed to be the same distance for everyone.
We've already mentioned how Chuck Rhoades, as the newly elected New York State Attorney General seems to spend no time in Albany. The producers are not going to craft a tourism love letter about Albany for the audience to develop an interest in that upstate city. The opening show to dramatic music is a continuous closeup of Manhattan, looking up from the Battery. And it is an impressive sight.
Albany has its charms, but not for Showtime. Chuck paddles around town, not using a MetroCard, but getting from point a to point B somehow. He's in a chauffeur-driven limo in the last scene—in New York City.
And Jock, the nation's Attorney General? He seems to spend time in New York, as does the Secretary of the Treasury. In once scene, Jock sidles up to the actor Daniel Strong, who plays Secretary Krakow, in what is an otherwise completely empty bank of urinals with no partitions, in the men's room, man-to-man at the trough, and tells the Secretary of an impending Chuck Rhoades investigation. Secretary Krakow somewhat begs for more information, but Jock is tight-lipped, even if his fly is open.
The physical size difference between the two men is highlighted by opening the scene with a from behind shot that makes it seem as if Jock is going to start molesting middle-schoolers. There is a significant height difference between the two men. Too much, really.
The actor playing Secretary Todd Krakow is quite short. And apparently the size difference between the two men is affirmed when Todd, with an side eyeball glance at Jock's equipment, says that he can understand why he's called Jock, even if he didn't earn the nickname playing sports.
Anyway, Krakow has been playing around with money in the Cayman Islands, and Chuck has a whiff of it. The part is poorly cast, and the character's name poorly chosen.
Do you mean to tell me that Todd Krakow's name graces the U.S. currency notes? I can't see it. And his height? Isn't he too short to a cabinet member. President Trump thought the Federal Reserve Chairman, Janet Yellen, was too short for the job. What would he think if Krakow's bona fides? Is Todd Krakow really Don Rubin, a former Secretary of the Treasury? Oh well.
A good part of Episode 7 involves horse-trading for favors between Chuck, Treasury officials, and the NYPD. The fellow with the gun permit that Chuck so successfully obtained for him is apparently not a reliable person to own a handgun. In fact, he's a poster child for gun control.
Apparently, the fellow hearing a loud noise, reached for his weapon, and fired through his kitchen window, killing a neighbor's dog. This is not good. Better call Saul? Better call Chuck.
Chuck, living in the city rather than Albany, comes over quickly. He sets things right with the officers who come over to investigate the shooting, and eventually brokers a deal for the gun owner to settle with the owner with the dead dog. But not before greed sets in with the dead dog owner, who now wants $250,000 to settle since he has a photo of Chuck answering the door and talking to the NYPD.
Doesn't that schmuck remember the jerks who tried to shake Robert De Niro down, only to be met by detectives and an Assistant State Attorney at Bob's Tribeca Grill restaurant? Could they have possibly thought De Niro doesn't know people?
The schmuck eventually gets the original agreed upon $100,000, plus the puppy show dog he wanted, when he's ushered into Chuck's limo by his security muscle to sign the NDA—the lifetime NDA. This is the more comedic part of the episode.
Meanwhile, the machinations to put a schism between Taylor and his father are taking serious shape. Treasury Secretary Krakow is in deep do-do with the authorities over his Cayman Island banking. Does he get free pens with those salted away millions?
Anyway, he asks Axe what can he do. Axe, like Chuck, always puts a price on favors, and refers Todd Krakow to Chuck, who meet clandestinely in the back of a pizza parlor, in New York, of course. Yonkers, maybe. Chuck gets around, but never to Albany.
Chuck can make the problem go away with no jail time. All Todd has to do is get the no-nonsense Hard Bob Beaufort from the Bureau of Industry and Security (a real bureau) to clamp a National Security embargo on Taylor's pop's turbine design and mothball it. The government will of course pay a 8% premium for the invention, but it will never reach market. The millions that might have been made have evaporated.
Of course this was Axelrod's idea to torpedo the project and get Taylor and the old man to go at each other. And it works. Taylor's father gets a consolation check, and Taylor is made to look like he steered his father wrong. Betrayed him. Enmity poured in concrete is hardening. Mission accomplished.
Of course Wendy helped with information, and Mafee, the trader who went from Axe Capital to Taylor Mason realizes he's been played by Wendy with the casual conversation at the bar that one evening. Loose lips do sink ships.
Mafee is incensed, and storms Axe Capital and rips Wend a new asshole. Mafee gets pushed back into the elevator before he and Dollar Bill become a WBA non-sanctioned fight, Wendy is shaken.
Before this happens Wendy has told Chuck she wants the house to be sold. She lists it with a broker. Chuck is shaken. Quite honestly, it's probably a good move to sell what looks like a Brooklyn Heights brownstone. The work planned on rebuilding the part of the BQE that goes under Brooklyn Heights is set to upend the neighborhood for years and years.
Wendy of course doesn't state this is the reason. It all goes back to Chuck outing the couple's sexual proclivities to the electorate. She can't shake that.
And perhaps best of all is that Bobby Axelrod gets to buy Bruno's pizzeria because Bruno wants the sun of Florida. It's time for Bruno to cash in.
Bobby of course is against this because it will mean the loss of what is being portrayed as the best pizza in the world. Bobby's new financial gal pal, Nina, convinces Bobby that his desires for the future cannot be grafted onto Bruno's. Bruno truly wants to retire.
How the pizza will be now that Bobby owns the oven, but not the guy making the pizza, will remain to be seen.
Will Bobby lose the Three Napkin rating from New York Magazine. Does Nee York Magazine even rate pizza? They must. Everyone rates pizza.
Stay tuned, and order a slice of Sicilian. You be the judge.
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