Ballers: “Ends” — Aug. 2, 2015
Just when it looks like things are starting to clear up for the Ballers crew, things get sticky again. Special Contributor Ralph S. takes a look at the goings on which even include That Girl shenanigans. Read on for more! – David F.
Courtesy HBO
Apparently Spencer can cook, maybe his next move should be a spot on the Food network. He makes breakfast for Vernon, Reggie and Joe and they discuss the result’s of Joe’s negotiations with Angela Lee’s lawyer, Maximo Gomez.
Joe tells that that he got Angela’s asking price for the incriminating photos she has of Vernon down from $500 grand to $150 grand. Even Reggie is impressed and thinks they should pay the money and move on, and Jason, who’s phoning this one in, flat out tells Vernon to give her the money. Vernon isn’t so sure though. He still doesn’t want to pay and wonders if pays up now when will it end.
Finally it seems that Vernon is clearly thinking things through and is recognizing the consequences of his actions. Spencer quashes the discussion by offering to pay the hush money. He tells Vernon that once this is done all Vernon needs to do is repay him the $300 grand Vernon borrowed earlier and they’ll be even. Still Vernon has doubts. Spencer pulls him aside and takes responsibility for the situation by telling Vernon that the incident happened at the yacht party that he and Joe held. Spencer then tells Vernon that he needs to be smart from now on and start paying attention to what’s happening to him. Vernon agrees and asks if Spencer is going from there to talk to Maximo. Spencer tells him that he first has to see Rodney’s wife to handle something for her and then he’ll see Max. When Vernon asks how Rodney’s doing Spencer replies flatly, “He’s still dead man.” Vernon’s face falls when he realizes his mistake but then Vernon’s had a lot on his mind lately. By now though is anyone besides me thinking that this whole blackmail thing is about something more than just Vernon? Especially after he refuses Joe’s offer to pay half of Angie’s asking price. Just some things to make ya go hmmm?
It seems, at least in the Ballers world, that you can choose to have the mortuary send the ashes of your dearly departed to your home by a delivery service like FedEx or UPS. That’s what happens to Rodney’s ashes, some nondescript delivery truck drives by the house and tosses a box over the front gate without stopping. His son picks up the box and yells to his mother that she has a delivery. Imagine that. Rodney, of course, was a former teammate of Spencer’s who died in a car crash along with his mistress of the moment because they were arguing and Rodney took his eyes off the road. When Spencer shows up at the house Rodney’s widow, Tina, hands him the ashes and tells Spencer he can do what he wants with them. I guess that grief was still too real for her to handle that responsibility.
At the sit-down with Maximo and Joe, Spencer is handing over the check when the lawyer drops one little, last-minute stipulation. It seems that Angie wants Spencer to hand her the check in person. Maximo says that she wants to see Spencer’s face when she gets the money. Without hesitation Spencer refuses pointing to the check on the table and saying that it’ll clear when he gets the pictures — period. He gets up, storms out and Joe follows him. Now tell me there ain’t something more to this then just Vernon getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.
Well, the writers decided to give super agent Jason Antolotti some time and some problems in this episode. Jason’s going over to his visit his widowed mother (Marlo Thomas) because she wants him to meet her new boyfriend. As she’s ushering him in to meet this guy she tells Jason that this new beau wants to get serious but she wants Jason’s opinion before committing. “If you’re happy, I’m happy,” Jason tells her. I would guess that Jason had a bit of an attitude adjustment toward the situation when he actually meets David, the boyfriend. David’s younger than Jason and he’s a golfer who wants to turn pro. Jason thinks this romance may be a ploy of David’s to get Jason to represent him and help his golfing career. Jason mentions this to his mom and she agrees to end things. A few moments later Jason goes to check on them and walks in to finds that something’s starting up that he’d rather not see. He leaves the house taking his father’s golf clubs with him. Little Davey won’t be using those to shoot anymore rounds.
Then there are the trials and tribulations of Ricky Jerret. Things start out with Ricky sitting around scheming about how to get Annabella back after she left him once she found out Ricky had been sharing more with Alonzo Cooley’s mom than mac-and-cheese recipes. After leaving Annabella a not to subtle phone message Ricky goes to work out and meets up with Charles Greene at the gym. They discuss Ricky’s problems of the heart and after not getting any sensible answers to his questions from Ricky, Charles finally tells him to go find Annabella and just talk to her. Meanwhile Annabella and Julie Greene are holding a small ‘war council’ over coffee at an outdoor cafe. Julie tells Annabella about the Funhouse and briefly describes some of the debauchery she found when she went to get Charles out of there. Needless to say Annabella wasn’t concerned about the house’s property values. “I’d kick one of his housemates in the dick if I thought that would make you feel better,” Julie tells Annabella. Annabella declares that she’s over it and they decide to leave the cafe and go get some real drinks.
Later after finding out from one of Annabella’s friends what club she’ll be at for the evening Ricky goes there to talk to her. Obviously things don’t go well once he finds her. Cupid’s shooting Ricky in the ass with some serious arrows dipped in arrogance, jealousy and stupidity. He sees Annabella dancing with basketball star Chris Anderson and then it’s on. Fortunately Ricky called Charles, who was reminiscing with Spencer about Rodney, before he headed for the club. They get there just as things begin to go nuclear. There’s yelling, screaming, some threats and Annabella lets Ricky know she’s found out about the Funhouse, that ratchets things up to another level. She also lets him know that she’s done taking shit from him. This is obviously not the outcome Ricky had hoped for.
After pulling Ricky away what is fast becoming an extremely volatile situation Spencer tries to get him to come with them to spread Rodney’s ashes. Ricky declines and storms out of the club. We later see him laying awake in bed, with two women sleeping beside him, seriously contemplating his situation.
Finally, we find Spencer and Charles spreading Rodney’s ashes on the football field where Spencer and Rodney played college ball. Charles confesses to Spencer that he misses the game. But at least you got out in one piece Spencer tells him. “I ain’t in one piece though Spence,” Charles replies. “Football made me whole.” Spencer tells his friend that he should go back to the game so that he will have no reason to have to look back.
Oh yeah, before things fade to black we find Spencer and Joe’s boss, Old Man Anderson, staring at his computer screen. It seems someone has sent him the pictures of Vernon at the party Spencer and Joe threw on the old man’s yacht. Somebody’s cut that damn fan on again and the ca-ca has just hit it.
See you next week boys and girls. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
