SPOILERS FOR COUNTDOWN EPISODE 8!
This is a pivotal episode, and one that really amps up the feeling of desperation – on both sides.
Which is a good thing in terms of storytelling….
A Sad Man With Alot of Money
The story so far recap reminds us just how desperate and angry Volchek is – and how tragic his life has been. He is a terrible ruthless villain in this story, but actually seeing the losses and tragedies and betrayals that have shaped him also make him an understandable one. Shout out to Bogdan Yasinski once again for his nuanced portrayal – you are chilled by his ruthlessness but can also see his pain clearly.
We see a flashback to young Volchek and his doomed brother, who was taken advantage of and set up, and paid the price.
“I’m sorry I got you into this, brother…” And then the shot, and his brother dead by his own hand, unable to live with himself.
The title of the episode is explained right away, Volchek drinking at a bar, sharing a story about how Russians and Ukrainians and Belarussians sit on a nail on a chair. Belarussians, he says, would pretend it’s okay, pretend it’s comfortable, ask may I sit here all day? It’s clear he’s talking about himself, how he’s been trying to handle his life that’s felt like sitting on a nail.
Eventually Volchek passes out and falls off the chair. Once he’s managed to make his way outside he’s approached by a man who knows who he is – “a sad man with a lot of money”. Wow, if that line isn’t relevant… He offers him protection. (That usually doesn’t go well, just saying).
In a flashback to 2021, “Mr. Vuso” meets with his banker, who suggests that he could disappear in America, have the American Dream. Volchek says he just wants to start over. But the City of LA tells him they’ll requisition some of his parking lots for their vehicles, ruining his profits, so he tries to bribe them – which gets him arrested. He really has been screwed over repeatedly, and now everyone is paying the price.
There’s an eerie foreshadowing at the police station with Meachum and Finau literally crossing paths with their eventual adversary, then Volchek asks to see his lawyer. First he’s roughed up by the cop holding him, then by the other men in the holding cell who now see him as a rich guy. He gets brutally beaten by them and nobody does anything about it for far too long. Bloodied and furious, Volchek is more dangerous than ever.
He still looks at photos of his wife on his phone as he waits to meet with his lawyer.
Probably not a job anyone should take, just saying.
Volchek: I was living my life. I absorbed the nail. Then they took my brother, they took my wife. I came to this country to see with my own eyes to see what kind of men could do these things. I thought maybe I was wrong, but it’s not the crops, it’s the very soil. Sometimes the man gets up off the nail and smashes the chair to bits.
Me: Uh oh. Better run, lawyer dude!
He locks the guy in his car and blows it up.
Meachum and Oliveras: Sparks?
Meanwhile, the task force follows the leads they have. Meachum interrupts his domestic moment of cooking eggs on his stove to answer the phone and finds out about the dead Belarussian guys in Volchek’s basement.
