Unstable - First Season

- Hang in there, buddy. - C'mon, now.

It's just so beautiful.

No, that is not what we're doing.

This is what we're doing.

Yeah, you got this.

Good morning, Becky.

- Hey, John, how's Arlo? - Finally sleeping through the night.

I told you he'd figure it out.

Melissa, loved that calculation on the activator-thymine ratios.

- Aw, thanks, boss. Appreciate it. - And I appreciate you.

Aw.

What... Pete, who is this?

My daughter, Sophia. We had a childcare issue.

I hope that's okay. She will stay out of the way.

Of course. Sophia, never stay out of the way.

Ask questions, challenge assumptions, disrupt shit.

Maybe throw some.

I'll try.

So, sweetheart, do you even know what we do here?

Biotechnology.

Yes, and do you know what that important-sounding word means?

Biotechnology, or biotech, is any research and development

that involves modifying a living organism to meet a human purpose.

Okay. So she kind of knows.

It includes everything from genetic engineering, to biofuels,

to creating an enzyme, like you did,

that can turn sugar cane into a plastic-like material

that's completely biodegradable.

- Technically, it's not plastic. - I said, "plastic-like."

It's a polyethylene.

It's actually a bio-polyethylene.

- I know that. - Didn't sound like you did.

- How could I not know if I invented it? - That's what I was wondering.

There are Cocoa Puffs in the kitchen, honey.

Okay, I am going to get some Cocoa Puffs

in my kitchen of my company that I created.

Yeah, I understand, Ted. Ellis is doing great.

I think he spent last night in the lab. I can assure you, he is laser focused.

I do not like any of our spoons.

Wait. No, I don't care.

The board is nervous.

I'll tell you what I do like. The new infrared sauna in my office. Thank you.

What kind of dreadful CFO would I be if I didn't approve an infrared sauna

so you could heat yourself from the inside out like a microwave burrito?

I have more clarity when my bone marrow's warm.

Are you all right? It's just you seem to be getting more, maybe...

I don't know. Why dance around it? Crazier.

Crazier? Or am I just letting the beauty of the world

move me in a more profound way?

That's literally the same thing.

We have 15 minutes till the board meeting.

They're going to want to hear

that you absolutely will meet the latest benchmark

on the carbon project.

I have done everything I can to buy you more time,

but since you keep missing deadlines,

you are now in danger of losing control of your company.

I'm not breathing with you.

It'll calm you.

I believe I'm at exactly the right level of agitation.

Stop breathing.

The board has noticed that the corporate therapist they got you has disappeared,

so they're also wondering about that.

Anna, we are doing something that has never been done before.

Something that will change the world.

And that requires tremendous creativity.

And if Einstein is right that "creativity is intelligence having fun,"

then the enemy of creativity is behaving.

Okay, I see why people believe in you.

I'll meet you in the conference room at 9:45. Don't be late.

And don't eat with two spoons.

- And you're late. - Don't come in.

Oh God.

What are you doing?

I want to have the board meeting in the sauna

because it keeps people honest. And then, I was looking for a towel, and...

I just really enjoy being naked.

Maybe you came back too soon.

No, no. It's good for me to stay engaged.

Katie's accident was only a couple of months ago, Ellis.

You were married for 30 years, so maybe...

No, no, no. Katie would've wanted me to keep going.

Of course, I wanted her to keep going.

Ellis, I'm so sorry she's gone.

Thank you.

Could you excuse me, please? I'd like to be naked again

and feel the cold air on my forlorn genitalia.

I will reschedule the board.

I'll tell them that you're fine, but a bat bit you,

or you inhaled bat guano, or something to do with a bat.

Everyone hates bats right now.

Anna.

You do so much for me that I hesitate to tell you this next bit

because you're not gonna like it.

It has to do with the therapist the board got me.

Oh God.

Malcolm, you know how you're obsessed with Ellis and would do anything for him?

- Yes. - We are up against a deadline.

I need Ellis in the lab, but he's spiraling.

- Upward? - Yes, Malcolm.

His wife, who he loved more than anything has died,

and so, like an airplane that's lost its wings, he's spiraling upward.

I know. It is in fact downward.

It's more than just Katie's loss. The woman kept him grounded.

I feel like he's a week away

from living in a park debating fusion with squirrels.

He loved Katie with an intensity only found in music and poetry.

Almost like you love him.

- I'm sending you to New York. - Okay. Why?

To bring back the one person

who might be able to ground him like Katie did.

Okay. Who?

Okay. Better than last week.

Was it?

Totally. Last week, Mrs. Fetterman banged on the wall,

so clearly, she's seeing improvement as well.

- What's wrong? - I don't even want to play the flute.

My dad makes me.

Oh...

Father-son stuff, man. Don't get me started.

- Okay. - You try so hard to please them, right?

But they want to make you a certain way, even if that's not who you want to be.

And you hope that one day that dynamic will change,

but when you realize it won't,

you come to terms with the fact that no matter how much you love them,

you gotta take a break, and that break is painful,

but let me tell you something, Ryan, it's also restorative.

So is the lesson over?

No, little buddy.

The lesson's never over.

Not until we learn how to navigate that very complicated relationship.

He's doing great.

It's me!

It's you!

Mm.

Dude, when's the last time you ate?

Teaching flute doesn't bring in a lot of money, so I don't get out much.

Plus the sauce for my chicken is creeping towards my mashed potatoes,

so I gotta move things along.

It's got to be hard not being able to let your foods touch.

They can touch. I just can't eat them if they do.

So you're in town for a night. We're dining on the company card.

Why did my dad send you?

Your dad didn't send me.

Can't two old friends hang out without there being an agenda?

If they're honest with one another.

Okay, Anna sent me.

- There is an agenda. - Boom.

Have you spoken to your dad since your mom's memorial?

A couple of times. Why?

How'd he seem?

He's not doing great.

Kept talking about some side project at work to turn himself invisible.

He wants to disappear. A shrink would have something to say about that.

The board got him a shrink.

The guy shadowed Ellis for a few days and then disappeared.

I don't mean he turned invisible. He just vanished.

Again, not invisible.

Look, I love my dad. I do. It's just...

Okay, then come to LA and help get him back in the lab.

- I don't think that's a good idea. - What if I told you... please?

- Remember when I won that science award? - No.

Exactly. That's 'cause Ellis Dragon showed up, then they asked him to speak,

and he got on stage and said my science was correct,

but that I needed to think bigger, take more risks, move fast, break stuff.

It was an ant farm.

That was a great speech. That's what got me into science.

Okay, you're missing my point.

All my dad ever does is try to change me into being more like him,

and the rest of the world cheers him on.

It's why I quit science and moved 3,000 miles away.

At least with my mom around, she could run interference,

but without her, it's exhausting.

Jackson, Ellis is spiraling,

which I've recently learned only goes in one direction,

and now you're the only family he has.

Okay. I'll go. For 24 hours. That's it.

Excellent. You'll regret it.

Don't you mean I won't regret it?

No. I'm lowering your expectations, so you won't be disappointed.

Oh my God. Why am I doing this?

Perfect.

- Come in. - Hi, Anna.

Jackson! Oh, you made it.

So good to see you.

- Take a seat. - Oh, okay.

So your father's been working on an exciting, new project.

It's a way of drawing carbon out of the atmosphere

and then using that to manufacture concrete.

It'll lock up climate-changing gases for over a thousand years

and will literally save the world.

- You like the world, right? - Some aspects of it.

- Still worth saving, right? - Some aspects of it.

Me too.

Now, Ellis has always been eccentric, and we love that about him. Just love it.

But since your mother passed away, he's been, well,

I'm gonna use the phrase "even weirder."

Hmm. What happened to the therapist that you got him?

I don't know. He disappeared. What do you want me to do about it?

Okay.