The scripted words bounce back and forth like those between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in 'My Gal Friday.' Quick, snappy dialogue that has you wanting close captioned replays, something I do now and then when I feel I'm not able to process all the quips.
Maria, along with the others, are delicately popping squares of sushi into their mouths from the tines of chopsticks. No one drops a morsel. My guess is, if you can't get through a meal with chopsticks, Axe wouldn't have you at the table.
The discussion swings, or seems to swing, around art, and who is genuine, and who is not. When is an abstract piece of art finished? Potty-mouthed Wendy gets in a few "fucks" and makes Axe noticeably jealous by rubbing the artist Tanner's upper arm.
We get a dilemma at Mase Carbon over tin sourced by dictator African regimes. This is not good, and leads to a convoluted agreement with Mike Prince that Taylor, et al. are going to do the right thing and take a long-term loss on the metal, but will emerge on the other side of it extremely well off.
Fast forward to later in the episode when Axe hears of this and explodes to Taylor that no matter what Taylor and Wendy think, Mike Prince has maneuvered Taylor into doing exactly what Mike Prince wants, and that is to put a stain on Axe's balance sheet that won't go away for about a year.
Meanwhile, Chuck is plotting to get the Treasury Secretary to display a conscience and remove himself from office, thereby, scuttling the plans that were being laid by Axe to get a bank charter, No Krakow in office, no charter being greased. Score one for Chuck, as he and Axe resemble the rivalry in 'Cheers' between Gary's Old Towne Bar and Sam's Cheers bar over who's better at softball.
Chuck is also trying to get a kidney for his ailing father, or at least get him high enough on the list so that he gets eligible for a transplant before it's too late. Chuck even sponsors a blood drive at work in the hopes of identifying possible kidney matches for Dad.
I think the upshot of all the under-the-table dealing gets Chuck's dad high enough on the list to be able to wait for a kidney before shuffling off. This of course has meant dealing with a "doctor" who is the guy someone can get for Chuck who can make all things medical happen for his father. Lumps of cash are handed over, and it seems Dad will soon be out of the woods.
Axe, never one to lose at love, exposes the artist's Tanner phony altruistic streak by steering a wealthy, still attractive divorcée Tanner's way who is set to woo him with pots of cash and lots of sex. Wendy who?
The prior episode had its share of quick banter when Chuck has a meeting with the Manhattan D.A. Madame D.A. is of course settling down to gourmet dumplings in some Manhattan restaurant with a formidable culinary reputation. It seems nothing of note is ever accomplished without sushi or tumblers of expensive scotch being consumed.
Through what seems incomprehensible dialogue with the Manhattan D.A., Chuck gets his way and gets her to give him the Bobby Axelrod tax evasion fraud case, and then fumbles the ball badly when the police detail guarding access to Bobby's apartment gets easily distracted by vandals ripping off windshield wipers and allows the original pieces of art to get swapped out for the copies with a helicopter landing on the building's roof. It's straight out of James Bond and the heist of the Vermeer and Rembrandts from the Isabella Gardner Museum.
Bobby avoids the tax evasion charges by having the originals placed in the domain of his suddenly created art foundation. He doesn't even join Conrad Prebys and Debbie Turner and get listed as a donor to your PBS station. Axe is slick. Things move fast when you're rich.
Wendy and the artist Tanner do what everyone thought they would do: hookup and have sex. Once again, the producers missed a musical moment big time when they failed to have Toni Tennille sing 'Do That to Me One More Time' when Wendy coos to have Tanner come back in bed with her as he sits there sketching her as she wakes from her angelic sleep under the sheets.
Chuck's dad is searching for a kidney donor for himself. He even dips into his secret Christmas card list of out-of-wedlock children looking for a donor. No luck.
Before Chuck deals with Madame Manhattan D.A., he seeks Katherine (Cat) Brant's advice on how to pitch the appearance that his approach for the care of sex workers is better than Madame D.A.'s concern, thus getting her to give up her pursuit of the tax evasion case against Bobby Axelrod.
Her advice works, and Chuck succeeds, without actually having to have a better program for the care of sex workers that usurps the Manhattan D.A.'s. Katherine is proud of him and rewards him (and probably herself) with a highly attractive, fetching piece of female eye candy in billowing lingerie that we're lead to believe Cat Brant has secured for Chuck's sexual pleasure, and we're to guess her own.
Since the show is not a porno, we cut to the next scene.
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