Episode 2: Advantage Play

Images of boxers' feet move in an athletic dance as we hear Tommy voice his hypochondriac symptoms to Billy. Billy has a little fun with Tommy as the superbly toned and sweating bodies, shadowboxing, come into view together with lights, the cameras, microphones, the weighing-in scale, and the sign behind it all:

METRO HOTEL
ORTIZ
BAY
FIRST SUPER MIDDLE WEIGHT FIGHT

Tommy is heading for a meltdown as he is about to go on national TV; he thinks he's having a heart attack, then a brain tumor, until finally Billy tells him the truth: it's stage fright. Billy advises "Breathe in, breathe out; count to ten." Tommy replies "I counted to ten, I counted to twenty!" Says Billy "It's a breathing exercise, not multiplication tables. Relax!" Tommy takes the stage and the pre-fight hype begins. It ends with Tommy getting between the two combatants and taking a cross to the chin. Tommy has his beaten-up face pressed against the microphones and flashbulbs are popping. As Tommy and Billy walk away from the press conference, Tommy is holding ice to his face, very pleased with the outcome.

The two men encounter an important-looking foreign guest who is talking on his cell phone while complaining to Tommy about his suite. Tommy agrees to solve the room complaint as Billy tries to converse with the beautiful sari-clad young woman who is with the guest. The woman doesm't speak, only nods or shakes her head in response to questions. Billy remarks that he presumes the young woman is not interested in fights, at which the guest stops talking on the phone long enough to bark that she's his daughter and she's not to watch the fight.

An extremely agitated Veronica tells Billy she just hit a pedestrian with her car, knocking the young woman to the ground. She seems okay, but did hit her head, and is in Billy's office with his nurse, Alice. Billy excuses himself from the exotic beauty with an ironic "nice talking to you" and accompanies Veronica. Vic is hot on their heels, telling Veronica her shift has started and the chips and customers won't wait.

Billy and Alice examine a young woman who is reclining on an examination table, wearing a neck brace. She is reluctant to volunteer any information about herself, but Alice says her driver's license gives her name as Claire. Claire is upset that they have been looking through her things and Billy mutters "we need to know if you are an organ donor." Billy orders some tests while Alice lifts Claire's shirt to reveal an enormous amount of cash strapped to her body. Billy looks at the cash, does a double take, and looks at Claire who says "I can explain." Billy quips "Well, I guess you'll be paying cash."

Claire is still in the clinic. Billy is looking at her x-rays. "No coins or gold doubloons in here" he remarks, tongue-in-cheek. He establishes that Claire and her boyfriend are students at Cal Tech who come to Vegas a few times a year, count cards, and make enough money to pay for the next school semester. Claire says that counting is not illegal and she just happens to be good at math. Billy pulls out a camera and snaps a picture of her. In answer to her question about his action, he explains that she has lost consciousness, needs a CT scan, and must go to the hospital to get it. If she doesn't show up, he will post her picture in the casino and she and her boyfriend will have to go back to flipping burgers to pay for school. That's it as far as he's concerned, as long as she doesn't count cards at the Metro Casino.

As Claire rejoins her boyfriend in the waiting room, Alice isn't pleased. "What do you call that, blackmail medicine?" she asks. Billy responds smugly "Efficient, isn't it?" Alice says "Efficient, clever, completely out of line; the Billy Grant Trifecta."

Tommy is in the foreign guest's suite, dealing with his demands, when Vic arrives to take him to the boxing arena. Billy is already there, attending to a cut over the left eye of the challenging boxer, Ortiz. He got it as he was playing with his son and ran into some weight equipment. Apparently, he only recently turned pro so he could compete in the Olympics, where he was "robbed" of the gold medal, but won the silver which was enough to get him this fight with the champ. Because of this, he needs to win this fight. Ortiz, his manager, Tommy, and Vic are all trying to convince Billy to stitch up the cut and allow Vic to cover it with the same makeup strippers use to hide implant scars, thus allowing him to enter the event. Billy knows it isn't the right thing to do but allows his friends to persuade him. Alice, Billy's self-appointed conscience, voices what we know he is thinking. Billy didn't lie, he just didn't tell tales, but if Ortiz gets hurt it will be Billy's fault.

The important guest intrudes as the scene with Ortiz unfolds, demanding yet more from Tommy. He has to leave immediately on business, going to a country for which his daughter, Mira, has no visa. While he is away, Tommy is to ensure she is protected: no gambling, no men, and no liquor. Tommy asks if he is to keep her locked in her room. No, it's okay with daddy if she goes out to dinner.

Ortiz is now patched up, Alice is disapproving, and Billy is conflicted. Vic chooses this moment to approach Billy and ask how much he is now in debt. He then suggests Billy bet on Ortiz's opponent before the odds start to swing. Billy finds that akin to Martha Stewart's insider trading, but Vic sees it differently. It's not that Billy patched Ortiz, concealed his wound from the Boxing Commission, and is sending him to fight with an easy to open wound that could make him lose; no, it is just an "Advantage Play." As Vic puts it, "Physician, heal thyself."

Tommy joins Vic and the doctor to thank Billy for being his friend, his tenant, and practically his brother. Tommy's joy is short-lived as he spots Mira, clad in a very low cut halter top and shorts, in the tattoo parlor off the casino floor. Mira is trying to decide which design to have, and asks Tommy's opinion. "How about the one of your father with his foot up my ass?" Tommy asks as he pushes Mira out towards her room.

It is now night, candles are lit, and Billy is playing the guitar on what appears to be the balcony of his penthouse office suite. The phone rings, and Vic asks him to come downstairs.

Tommy is having dinner with a petulant Mira. She keeps getting out cigarettes and Tommy keeps taking them away, until he finally confiscates the entire pack. All the while she is complaining about her father treating her like a beautiful object that can be looked at but not touched. "I'm twenty-one and I've never been kissed" she complains. Tommy wants to know where. Mira gets up and leaves the table, ostensibly to go to the ladies room.

Billy meets Vic, who hands him a $5,000 marker to bet on the fight. Billy's rhetorical question is "Why does this feel like a pay-off?" Vic says he can always bet it on Ortiz. Billy goes to place a bet but is not able to do so.

Veronica has been sent to look for Mira, who has given Tommy the slip, in the restroom. Henry finally finds her, and he and Tommy drag the screaming, kicking Mira to her room, lock her in, and post a guard. She manages to bite Tommy's hand.

Billy and Alice are back in the office seeing a couple of patients when Alice hands Billy the results of a lab report she ordered on Ortiz after noticing a bruise on his side.

In a brief scene Tommy informs Veronica she has paid out too much money on a marker. She is afraid she will be fired, but after hearing about her car/pedestrian accident, he tells her just not to expect to be Employee of the Month and to act like the professional she is.

Tommy has more pressing problems on his mind. He is waiting in a cabana he rented for Mira when Frank brings her in. Tommy says "I said a bathing suit, not dental floss." Mira protests it is all she has, but if Tommy insists on a one piece suit she will remove the top half of it, and reaches to do so. They argue over the rules of her behavior for the day and agree that she can stay in the cabana if she doesn't smoke or wiggle her bottom at the towel boys and limits her drinking to two glasses of wine three hours apart. Frank is also warned he will get his fingers broken if he accepts Mira's request to oil her back.

Billy is in the gym, watching Ortiz spar. He asks the fighter if he has been hit in the kidney, and Ortiz says yes, all the time. Billy asks "You pissing blood?" Ortiz denies it, so Billy tells him about the blood that has shown up in his lab report. It may be nothing more serious than a bruise, but without a CT scan they won't know if it is life threatening. There is no time to have the test before the championship, so Ortiz flatly refuses to follow Billy's recommendation. "I've been working my whole life for this" the fighter shouts as Billy is escorted out. Billy manages to stop long enough to get in one parting shot. "You could bleed out. Ten minutes." At that a group of thugs unceremoniously ensure Billy says nothing more.

Billy confronts Tommy in the casino lobby, trying to convince him to call off the fight. Vic is also present. Tommy tells Billy to chill out. Billy says the fighter is one punch away from the morgue and Tommy has to stop it. An argument that has the potential to destroy this friendship is brewing. In complete frustration Billy starts yelling at Tommy "I did what you wanted. I patched the kid up to save you, because you asked me to." Tommy gets right in Billy's face, his voice low, his words cutting "You didn't do it for me, you did it for the rush; to be the hero." Billy looks like he has been slapped. He sees the Boxing Commissioner across the lobby and starts calling his name, when out of nowhere Vic hits him with a body punch, grabs the front of his shirt, and backs him into a wall. Billy icily tells Vic to take get his hands off him. Vic does as he says, but keeps him against the wall. Vic asks "Did you warn the kid?" Billy says nothing. Vic repeats his question. Billy says "Yes" Vic spits "Then you've fulfilled your ethical obligation. You want absolution? See a priest. Don't screw your friends." The two men glare at each other before Vic walks away. Billy looks totally defeated.

Tommy hasn't time to recover from the scene with Billy when he sees an even more chilling sight across the room. He is absolutely horrified to discover Mira, very drunk, dancing on a bar and removing her panties from under a very short skirt, surrounded by men shouting encouragement. Mira appears eager to oblige. Tommy breaks through the mob and somehow wrestles Mira into the elevator, where she admits she has consumed ecstasy, cocaine, and alcohol. She also asks him to marry her, a request he ignores.

In the casino, Billy watches as the pre-fight show reveals Ortiz is a widower; if he dies, his son will be an orphan. Billy gives no indication that the information has registered with him, as he has just spotted the card counter, Claire, and her boyfriend at a blackjack table. He takes the marker out of his pocket and takes a seat at the table. Veronica moves in to take over the deal. Billy puts down his marker, Veronica looks to Vic for guidance, and he gives the nod. On the first hand Billy wins $4,500. Before another hand can be played, Henry is whispering to Billy that he must come with him. Billy's winnings and his marker stay where they are and he follows Henry.

After making sure his crash gear is available and an ambulance called, Billy enters the VIP's suite to find a panicked Tommy trying to revive a comatose Mira. In the midst of the drama that ensues as Mira goes into cardiac arrest, there are touches of both irony and humor as Tommy is required to remove her bra (Billy says "You already have her panties!"), as well as her nipple ring (Tommy "And I was worried about a tattoo.")

Billy and Tommy are still in Mira's suite. She's now conscious and is in bed with an IV running, drinking liquid charcoal to absorb any undigested drugs, and since Tommy cancelled the ambulance someone has to stay and watch her. While Tommy is speaking to Billy, eyes on Mira, Billy picks up a pass to the locker room and leaves Tommy talking to himself as Mira falls asleep.

Billy enters the restricted locker room with his stolen pass and tries one last time to convince Ortiz to postpone his fight. His efforts fail, so Billy resorts to plan B. He slugs the boxer over the left eye, opening up the stitches he himself so carefully inserted. Before Ortiz can react, the Boxing Commissioner enters. Billy informs him the fight must be cancelled as the fighter tripped on his own laces and fell, hitting his head. A grinning Billy, quite pleased with himself, responds to Ortiz's manager's first threat with a smug "What do you think you can do to me?" when they show him, all six of them.

Billy is lying on one of his own examination tables, lip swollen, eyes blackened, Alice examining him. She says he has no brain damage, but someone should awaken him every two hours throughout the night. Billy asks "You volunteering?" Alice replies "You think you deserve a prize?" Billy's response is "Someday you'll make someone a great mother, Alice." Alice says "First you try to get me in your bed and now you're calling me your mother; you need help, mister." Billy wants to know "You volunteering?" Alice, walking away, mutters "In your dreams." She turns back to Billy and places a tender kiss on the unswollen side of his mouth. Billy looks after Alice with a silly grin on his battered face.

Billy enters the casino. Some of the swelling has gone down, so it must now be morning. He spots Vic among debris and ruins. Vic responds to Billy's question about the chaos by saying the customers wanted a fight, so they had a fight. He turns to get back to work, then reaches in his pocket and brings out a paper. "I found this marker" Vic says. "I was running off a couple of card counters, betting heavy, and there it lay, like an orphan." Billy tells him "It's not a bet; it's an advantage play. You should learn the difference." Billy and Vic exchange a look. Vic places the marker down on the nearest table and walks away. After a moment, Billy snatches it up, pushes it into his pocket and strolls out of the casino.

Tommy is busy mollifying disappointed customers and saying goodbye to a once more demure Mira and her father. Just as she walks away she turns and gives Tommy a sly wink.

Billy, wearing shades to cover most of the damage to his face, approaches his friend. Tommy looks at him and says "You I ought to put on the street." Billy grins, knowing everything will be fine. Ortiz and his entourage come into view and Tommy remarks that Ortiz is not likely to thank Billy for his efforts. As Ortiz's son runs out and jumps into his father's waiting arms, Billy remarks "I didn't do it for him."

~ Lee Jones

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