Summary
Another brilliantly directed episode with astounding performances as the plot thickens and the real evil does not feel apparent.
This recap of Amazon Original Goliath season 4, episode 2, “The Candy Man,” contains spoilers.
Read the recap of the opening chapter.
Damn, this series is upping the game from a directorial perspective. The fact that this will be the final ever season makes me sad. The first two chapters are brilliant — they are applaudable. Every glance, movement, dialogue, a prop is not a coincidence.
Goliath season 4, episode 2 recap
Episode 2 opens with a student basketball game for a state championship. It’s a flashback, and Tom True’s daughter is on the cheerleading team. She experiences a nasty fall. Tom True watches on in horror. It then turns into a trippy-feeling scene, with George Zax on stage in an imagined Broadway show. He’s on the piano singing about a fallen princess who is in pain, and he offers assistance to help her — opioids. He calls himself “The Painkiller.” If that is not an aim at pharma companies, I do not know what is.
Back in the present, a furious Patty tells Billy that she’s on notice at the firm because of him. She hates how she has to rely on him, a running theme in this series. She reveals she’s on track for an equity partner, but she feels she was only hired to get Billy on board at the firm. Billy calms her down and reveals he has found a whistleblower for the case.
Unconvinced, Patty asks Samantha if her equity partnership is based on Billy winning the case, but she insists it is not. Patty then tells her that there is a whistleblower that Billy has found. You can tell by Samantha’s face that she’s keeping it together; she’s not entirely happy that Billy has found a whistleblower. The audience can feel uneasy around Samantha now.
Legal wars begin in episode 2; a Tillenger Health lawyer offers the firm a settlement of $10 million. Patty tells the lawyer that they cannot accept anything less than $160 million that Zax Pharma offered. The lawyer becomes frustrated and explains that Tillenger Health and Russell Drugs will sink them. Billy speaks up and calls them reckless with a targeted business plan that kills people.
We see Tom True in episode 2; he enters his apartment and looks at old family photos. Billy enters, so Tom hides. Billy looks at documents on the case. Outside, Rob bumps into Tom. Tom tells Rob that “they are after me” and suggests Samantha is the perpetrator. He raises how Samantha brought in Billy, and he cannot trust anyone at the firm. He asks Rob if he can trust Billy, and Rob states he can.
And the mask falls off in episode 2; Samantha meets the Big Pharma CEOs at a cafe, and George Zax is also there. She apologizes for being late. George Zax is venomous against Samantha immediately and asks where Tom True is. He reminds her of the agreement. Samantha assures him that they will accept settlements from all three companies, revealing no damaging information in court. She wants a share of the settlement and that the companies will retain the law firm for legal services. She also tells George Zax not to worry about Billy as it is her problem. What a scene — it’s one of those scenes where you sit back and admire the acting.
Billy decides to speak to the older man who lives across from him who keeps on looking at him. The older man reveals his wife died in the same apartment that Billy lives in. The older man wants to know why Billy is here, knowing that he and Patty are lawyers. As the strange conversation ends, the older man tells Billy that there’s a car on the road that has been there all night.
Late in the night, Billy meets Greg Wetzel (played by Greg Grunberg), who gives him shipment information regarding the three companies. He’s the whistleblower, and he tells Billy that these companies are evil who offered him a retirement package at the age of 38. Billy offers him protection if he testifies in court, but Greg is distressed about the situation and tells Billy not to call him again. As Greg walks off, he rings Samantha and tells her that he passed on the paperwork to Billy. Samantha arranges a flight out of the city, so Billy does not find him. Audiences will be wondering how long it will take Billy to figure out that Samantha is orchestrating every movement.
The ending
As the episode nears the ending, Rob and Samantha appear to have some romantic history as negative tensions are high between them after work. Later on, Samantha heads to Rob’s place to apologize, and they share a beer. Samantha reveals that Tom’s car has been found at the airport, but it turned out to be a decoy. She raises how Tom may have killed himself (she knows full well he hasn’t). She then turns the emotional screw and acts upset, raising how she and Tom were close, and she does not want Rob to disappear on her. Rob switches the conversation and asks her why Patty jumped above him for an equity partner. An irritable Samantha raises how Patty closed a significant case, and then the pair argue intensely.
As Samantha leaves the apartment, a man named Ken sends Samantha a photo of Rob and Tom together. The plot continues to thicken, and audiences have to decide if Samantha is truly the villain.
Additional points
- We see more of Billy’s subconscious with the western black and white film. He’s shot. The cowboy is the same man across from him in the apartment. Billy is dreaming about this western town.
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