I Can See You’re Out Of Aces: A “Cane” Recap

Posted by Sarah

We open at a dice game. Frank’s losing. Cut to Henry setting up a hotel pool party. Cut to Alex talking to some suit who tells him one of their distributors is a problem. Frank ups the ante. Alex has to crack down on the number of “broken” (read: stolen) bottles. Frank goes all in, loses, and accuses the winner of having rigged dice. He’s politely asked at knifepoint to leave. We see that he’s been playing in a trashy motel — that can’t be good. Not only that, but a tough guy is leaning on his shiny red sportscar. The guy tells him that Desi (his bookie) is taking the car as a portion of the debt Frank owes. Debt? What? We learn something new every week …

Alice goes to see Frank on his yacht and tells him that she never knew anything about Lucia’s murder, and that she hates her dad now.

Alex is gambling with his new thug friends. He says that if the thugs can keep his bottles from disappearing off of the trucks, he’ll compensate them generously and off the books.

Rebecca and Jaime are chillin’ at the house when she tells him that her dad’s coming to town soon. She hasn’t seen him in two years, and he left her when she was five years old. He’s a deadbeat who probably heard that her fiancé is rich and wants money. She doesn’t want him to come, but Jaime plans a big lunch party for his arrival.

Henry pays a visit to the distillery, and invites Goldilocks (I can’t call her Terry, I just can’t) to his party. She’s noncommittal, and when Henry expresses an interest in what happens at the distillery, she and Pancho make fun of him.

Frank tells Alice decide that it’s time to come out to the family.

The FBI pays Old Man Samuels a visit, saying they know all about the Canadian firm and the coverup. The Old Man feigns ignorance. The FBI has proof. The Old Man refers them to his daughter, who “is in love with a Cuban fella and has a soft spot for his home country.” That’s low, man …

Goldilocks shows up at Henry’s pool party with a friend — a hunky astrobiologist who spent four years in the Peace Corps digging wells in Africa. Threatening, much? Henry’s little heart is crushed.

Isabel and Alice are planning a fundraiser together, and Alice breaks the news about her relationship. Isabel’s surprised, but she likes Alice and thinks she’s good for Frank. She wants to set up a double date, and Alice resists because of Alex. But Isabel says she’ll handle him.

Frank meets with Alex and tells him about Alice, and Alex is all, “Fine, do whatever you want. I don’t care.” When Frank tells him that Alice knew nothing about Lucia, Alex counters with the fact that Alice’s family’s under investigation by the FBI for illegal land holding in Cuba. Frank’s all, “How do you know she’s even involved in that?” Alex is all, “How do you know she’s not?”

Alex’s newly hired thugs bust one of his drivers, who’s delivering rum to a guy in a car instead of to Alex’s clients. The head thug tells Alex that he’d like to be Alex’s trucking company instead of “loss prevention,” because he wants to be more legitimate. Alex refuses, and the thug tells him that Frank owes half a million dollars to a bookie. Alex confronts Frank with this info, and gives him a flier for Gamblers Anonymous. Frank insists it’s just a hobby. Alex offers to negotiate with the bookie, and Frank yells at him for having a savior complex. Frank: “It’s none of your business!” Alex: “$97,000 expense reports for one month are my business.” Frank: “You think you’re so cool.” Alex: “Now you know why your father picked someone off the street instead of his own son to run the company.” Frank decks Alex.

Alex goes to his thug and asks him to buy Frank’s debt from the bookie. He knows Frank will keep gambling, so paying the debt won’t do any good, but if Frank’s bookie is one of Alex’s thugs, then at least he knows they won’t break his legs if he doesn’t pay up right away. In return, Alex will not only let the thugs drive his trucks, but he’ll also recommend them to other clients. Everybody wins.

At the double date Isabel arranged, Alex is standoffish. Alice tries to break the ice, but it doesn’t go well. Frank’s still mad at Alex, and so he tells everyone that “Alex doesn’t see the glass as half full or half empty. He just looks at the glass and asks ‘Who drank my water?'” An argument breaks out, and in the middle of it, the FBI comes over and asks to speak to Alice. What a great date!

Lunch with Rebecca’s dad doesn’t go much better. You can tell when he opens with, “So y’all’re pretty rich, huh?” and launches into a diatribe about how he wished the American Dream worked as well for his descended-from-Pilgrims self as it did for all the immigrants. Jaime can’t take it anymore, and yells at him for abandoning his daughter. Rebecca storms out, and when Jaime follows her, she tells him that he has no right to talk to her loser dad like that because Jaime has no idea what it’s like not to have money. Her dad’s never had any, she’s never had any, and Jaime’s never been without it.

Desi tells Frank that he’s got a new bookie, courtesy of Alex.

Old Man Samuels makes it clear to Alice that he has no qualms about pinning the Cuban thing on her.

Frank grills Alex about his thug connections, and Alex demands that all Frank’s business expenses go through him. Fine. Frank goes home, calls the new bookie (the same guy who stopped the truck driver from stealing rum) and puts $30,000 on a Dolphins game. Cuz that’ll fix things.

Rebecca’s dad meets her at her job and gives her money, in case things don’t work out with the rich kid who might one day wake up and regret marrying a poor white girl. Turns out, he got the money by selling his dad’s watch, which meant everything to him.

Henry asks Pancho how to “land” Goldilocks, and Pancho lays into him about his inability to get women any farther than his bed. Henry comes back with, “It’s not all about sex, dad — I talk to them.” Pancho has his work cut out for him.

Alex goes to visit Alice, to tell her to stay away from his wife. She reminds him that there was a time when she was very fond of him, and he of her. He tells her that that was a long time ago, and that past is dead now.