Mom, can you just take a breath? I'm sorry, you don't understand, Bethany. I can't anymore. I just can't.
I didn't sign up for this. It was hard enough for your father, who was here. But now that he's gone, I can't.
I'm sorry. Waiting okay? It's burning! Oh shoot. Great!
Now what? You trying to burn my place down? I'm sorry, I have everything under control. Do you have my rent? Um, not yet, but I am working on it.
You've been working on it for a while. If you don't figure out things soon and come up with my money, I'll be filing for eviction. Please, I just need a little bit more time.
And I need your rent. I'll get it to you. Yeah, yeah, you better. Sissy, I didn't mean to add more to your problems, but my laptop is broken again. Of course it is.
Just like everything else. I'll take a look at it. Here you go. Aren't you gonna eat?
Um... I'm not hungry. Let me take a look at this antique.
How are you so smart? I'm not that smart. You have to be a genius to be able to keep that thing alive.
I guess I'm just curious. You know, I like to know how things work. So when something breaks, instead of going and buying a new one, I just try and fix it.
It ends up saving you a lot of money, and you always end up learning something new. Remember, just because it's broken, doesn't mean you can't fix it. I guess, you know, after doing this for so much time, I got to be so smart.
Yeah. Does that answer your question? Bailey, I said... Bailey! Her vitals have returned to normal, but she's going to need surgery.
And if she doesn't? Bethany, your sister isn't doing well. Without the surgery, she has maybe one year at the most. You're late again.
I know. My sister. What now? Helping her with her homework? Taking her to basketball practice?
She's... What? She's what?
What's happening now? She's dying. I am so sorry. I didn't know what happened.
She collapsed last night, and I took her to the hospital. She's stable, but she does need an operation. Is there any way I can get an advance? On your salary? I'm sorry, I can't.
I wish I could. I do. It's just... It's not in the budget.
To be honest, we can barely pay you as is. But you're the smartest worker I have. I don't want to lose you.
I really am sorry. Would you mind getting started on the repairs? Yeah, I'm just going to get some coffee first.
Take your time. I got your text. Yeah. How is she doing? Not good.
And how are you doing? Not much better. I have to come up with a lot of money and fast.
Give me one second. Do you need any help? Yeah, I think I need a new phone. What's wrong?
This thing just won't charge. I think I'm just gonna have to buy a new one. It's been doing this a while.
It's like, it charges, then doesn't charge. The battery just drains. You see?
Maybe I could trade it in? I actually don't think that would be necessary. Oh. Let's see.
Hmm? Try now. Oh my gosh, you fixed it! Yeah, sometimes dust or fuzz builds up and ends up blocking the charging mechanism.
How much do I owe you? Don't worry about it. Aw, thank you so much! Yeah, of course. Okay, I have an idea.
Rocky. Rocky? Rocky.
Hey, I'm Rocky. Hey Rocky. Hey Kay, did you change your hair? Uh, yeah, yeah, I just, I got a haircut.
Wow, I think it looks really nice. Thanks Rocky. So what is all of this?
All these, they're all cell phones. I pulled out a few. You stole them?
No, no, I didn't steal them. No. No, no, he didn't steal them. They did not pass quality control tests, and the owner, the owner is in prison. He did not pay his storage fees, so now they are here with me.
Got it. So what do you think? What? I'm kind of confused here.
Oh, I'm gonna sell them to you. All they need is a little bit of repair and trust me when I say this, it's all legal. It's all legal.
It's all legal. It's all legal. It's all legal. But why would I want to do that? How could I anyways?
Well, you could fix them up. Check them out, repair them, sell them for a profit. I don't know if I can sell all of these. Well, how about that pawn shop? That guy's always looking to sell stuff.
Hmm. How much would it cost to buy the phones? All of them? Mm-hmm. Just 30 grand.
30 grand? Yeah. I don't have that kind of money. Well, you know I'm sure we can figure something out right since you are Kay's best friend.
I'm sure I could give you like friends and family discount Yeah, let's see The circuit board is damaged. Can you fix it? I think once I replace it, it should be as good as new. I mean, this one looks fine, it's just that the charging port is damaged. So, what do you think?
Yeah, I like them. How many do you have? A couple hundred.
Ooh, a couple hundred. I can't afford to buy that many. Money's tight. I could maybe buy one of your crates.
How many you got? 75 in each? Mm-hmm.
I could give you 20 grand. The other pawn shops in the area can pick up the rest for about the same price. Hold on, I gotta take this.
If he's gonna give us 20 grand for just 75 of the phones and the other pawn shops give us the same deal We'd be in the black before we even sell half of the phones and I'll be able to pay for my sister's surgery You see you're not the only one who's a genius Just let me know when the rest are ready What's wrong? I just realized I have to pay for the phones before I can even fix them. Even with Rocky's friends and family deal, I don't think I can afford it. I think I might have another idea.
Well, I'm very sorry Bethany, but the bank can't in good conscience approve this loan amount. You have a lot of outstanding debt. Perhaps once you've had a chance to pay some of that down, we can revisit this.
Is there anything else I can do? Well, if you could find someone to co-sign for the loan, put up some collateral. I'll, uh, give you some time to think about it.
I'll cosign. What? I'll cosign.
My grandma, she left me these earrings. They're diamonds. Antiques. They're like $20,000.
Easy. Boom. Collateral.
Wait, you'd really do that for me? Of course. I believe in you.
And Bailey needs that surgery. Thank you. And in other news, community mainstay Paul's Pawn Shop, a local business has been open for 20 years, is closing its doors after being robbed on Thursday. What? I hate doing this.
It just makes sense. The losses were too hard to come back from. We'll be having a fire sale tomorrow on whatever's left of what rats didn't steal. What am I gonna do now? Hey.
Hey. You know, I went through 20 of these last night. That's awesome. Now that Paul's pawn shop is closing, what am I going to do?
Well, there are other pawn shops, right? I guess, but I haven't even gone to any of them. I've just been so busy.
Excuse me. I'm sorry. Oh, no, you're good. Um, do you got this? Is this covered?
Okay. I've been looking for you. My sister's phone started doing the same thing. I tried your tweezer trick and it didn't seem to work. Maybe I just don't have your magic touch.
Let me take a look. Okay, let's see what's going on here. Ah. Ah?
What ah? It looks like the charging port is damaged, and that's going to need to be replaced. How much is that? Oh, that'll be like $18.
Oh, that's not so bad. Mm-hmm. Mm. Huh?
Yeah, but also your... The circuit connector to the motherboard is also damaged, and that's gonna cost you around $200. $200? At this point, she might as well get a new phone. Why are these parts so expensive?
Because you have to buy the newer parts that they're selling. Why wouldn't old parts from older phones work? It's not like this is a new phone, so why does it need new parts?
I don't know. I've never thought about that. Hmm. You know, I once calculated that if every individual part of the phone needed to be replaced, that it would cost three times the amount of just buying a new phone.
But that's because the manufacturer has a monopoly and they can charge whatever they want. That's crazy. There should be someone who gives them competition so parts can be more affordable.
It works! You know, you're so smart, you could be that competition. Using old parts to fix older phones and reselling them. Me?
But I'm just an ordinary person. Every extraordinary entrepreneur was once just an ordinary person too, right? You could be that competition.
Using old parts to fix older phones and reselling them. So we would sell you the parts of the phones for cheaper than it would cost to buy them elsewhere so that you can use them in your refurbished phones. Like I did with this one. All old parts, and it works completely fine. You see?
I don't know. Some parts might be interchangeable. I replaced the charging dock.
Well, that's very easy to replace. What about the hybrid circuit boards or the IC patch unit? Well, I haven't tried that yet, but... You see, those could be a little trickier.
Tell you what. You pull that off, you come back, talk to me, we'll go from there. Okay, thank you. Still, at the end of the day, you're not going to be able to replace the HJ bypass.
That particular... The part is very hard to find, ship, and process. Plus, I think it's impossible to replace it with just old parts.
I'll see how any of this is all possible, actually. Yeah, that sounds nearly impossible. You say?
I said nearly impossible. Nearly? Give me some time. Go ahead. Take all the time you want, sugar.
You should be in bed. Can't sleep. What are you doing?
I am taking apart these phones in order to repair them and resell them to a tech company. Why? It's late. Because they don't think I can do it.
Can you? I'm gonna try. But it's broken.
For now, but just because it's broken doesn't mean you can't fix it. Exactly. So let's see.
It works! It works! Yes!
I told you. Looks great, doesn't it? We could work out a flat rate for all of the phones. I was thinking something in the ballpark of like maybe 50 or... No, no, no.
Hold on a second. I never promised you anything. Besides, I don't have time to test all these parts.
I tested them. That's why I was up all night. Oh, look.
This sounds like a great little science project. Fascinating, really. And you seem quite bright for a woman. But you just can't do something like this in a day or two.
And like I said... I don't have time to test all these parts and get approval and... Ultimately, I really don't think it's worth the time and energy on my end. Sorry. The manager shot me down.
That's ridiculous. After all that. If only there was a way to go straight to the top and not have to deal with these condescending middlemen and talk straight to Elle.
Elle? Like from Stranger Things? No.
Elle Reese? The CEO. Sorry, I didn't know the two of you were on a first name basis. No, I'm saying Elle Reese. She's literally right there.
It's your chance. Go! Go! What are you waiting for?
I would have held the door for you if you just said something. Thank you, you are so kind. I'm a big admirer of yours.
Thank you. Do you work here? No, well not yet.
I just had a meeting with your tech manager. So? You're a woman. Last time I checked, yes. I am one too.
I never want to be presumptuous, but okay. What I mean to say is you know more than anyone else how difficult it is to make it in tech. I think I see where you're going with this. I have found a way for you to save money, increase profits, and help the environment. That sounds like quite the proclamation.
I'm going to need to hear a little more. I just showed your tech manager a refurbished phone. This phone.
It's like new, but it's filled with old repaired parts from old used phones. All the parts? Our engineers have worked quite some time on the HA bypass.
All the parts. It works. I'm telling you, it is possible to refurbish all the parts of a used phone. You can save money, increase profits, and help the environment. In theory, that sounds like a nice idea.
But there is testing. There is quality control. Just give me a chance.
Woman to woman. Please. I know I may just be some ordinary girl.
But every extraordinary entrepreneur was once just an ordinary person too, right? If 80% of the parts pass quality control and you can get them to me by the end of the month, then I'll buy them. Thank you. However, if you're even 0.1% off, then the deal is off. You got it.
And I'm gonna need you to include the Z-Circuit bridge. The Z-Circuit bridge? Is that gonna be a problem? No, of course. I'll make sure to do that.
How in the world am I gonna make this happen? Do you think when I'm done with the hospital stuff we could go to Disneyland? Absolutely.
Wait here. Please no! I've given you too many chances and you still haven't paid.
I'm sorry. But can I at least go inside and get my stuff? You don't understand. I need my money. And I need my stuff.
You'll get your stuff when I get my rent. We should go, okay? Bailey!
Bailey! Bailey! What happened? We were outside and she just collapsed. The doctor said we were lucky to get here when we did.
She's stable, whatever that means for now. The doctor said if she doesn't get surgery soon, she might not make it another month. Okay, well, we got all the parts and I'll such that she's gonna pay you as soon as we pass the quality control tests I got you evicted the landlord won't even let me go inside and get my stuff The hospital will allow Bailey to stay another 24 hours But since you're behind with your bills, we can't keep her after that I'm so sorry It's over.
I failed. It's like my whole world is broken. Just because something is broken doesn't mean you can't fix it.
You see... When mom left us, I thought it was all over. And I know you were scared too. And like me, you almost gave up hope so many times.
Almost. But no matter how bad things got, no matter how broken, you always figured out a way to fix it. So you see, it's the same as it was before. We've came so far, we can't give up now. You're right.
We're gonna get through this too. It's no use, it's not working. I hate to act like I like boys back just for the help, but... Rocky? Rocky.
Shh. Yeah, it should be on the couch over there. Okay. Here. Take your phone.
So, um, out of curiosity, has he ever been convicted of a crime? Convicted? Yeah.
No. No. Okay.
He's never been convicted. What if we get caught? Hey, let's, let's form an assembly line.
That'll be easier. Okay. Hey you! What are you doing? Come on, hurry up!
Oh no, Nia! Get up, one more over there! Hey!
Get back here! Let's go, let's go, let's go! I don't have much time to fix this.
Elsa at the end of the month and that's in less than 12 hours. Well, that's still 12 hours. What are friends for?
Hand me the soldering iron. Oops. Oops? Oops? Looks like there's a problem here.
I'm sorry. Me too. Looks like you just missed the mark by.1%.
You remember our deal? I do. Wait.
I'm sorry. A deal is a deal. There's just some fuzz. Could you please try again? Impressive.
So, how much is this gonna cost? Well, I told your manager that each unit would be fifty-Hang on. What are you doing?
Well, I think under the circumstances and given the performance and the environmental impact, eighty would be closer to a fair price. 60 75 70 75 75 Wait Your friend negotiates hard Too hard I like it. Reminds me of myself when I was younger I'm gonna go ahead and prepay for 10,000 units. How does that sound?
I'm sorry, Bailey. But it's hospital policy. Nurse, it's okay. The patient will be staying.
We are proceeding with the surgery. Thank you. You got the money?
Yes, you're gonna be okay. Hey one more step and now you can take it off. You bought us a house?
Mm-hmm and I wonder what this could be. Disneyland tickets! Thank you.
Of course. Now I'm getting the biggest bedroom.