Finder’s Fee

On his way home, Tepper finds a wallet and pockets it. He dials the number tucked inside and learns the wallet contains this week's $6 million lottery ticket. The discovery flips from idle curiosity into a high-stakes moral dilemma about what to do with the fortune.

Tepper wrestles with whether to tell the owner or keep silent. He keeps the secret as the night still seems ordinary, but the knowledge gnaws at him. The sense of impending risk colors the rest of the evening.

Quigley, Bolan, and Fishman arrive for their weekly poker game, where the pot is built with everyone buying a lottery ticket. The game is played as a freezeout, so the winner takes all, heightening the personal stakes.

Avery Phillips, the wallet's owner, enters the room and carries himself with wary calm. Tepper tries to steer him toward leaving, but Avery stays to watch and even calls his wife, unable to reach her. The unease in the room thickens as the game resumes.

NYPD officers lock down the building for an investigation, forcing everyone to improvise under pressure. Avery's presence unsettles Tepper as ordinary bravado gives way to tense caution.

Bolan recognizes Avery from a camp where he taught fire safety, adding a layer of memory and suspicion. Avery explains he supports his family by driving a bus after disability checks fall short, deepening the human dimension behind the man with the ticket.

The friends decide to join by contributing their own tickets, tightening the circle around the table. A growing sense of distrust lingers as Tepper's interest in the ticket becomes more obvious.

Tepper, who holds a duplicate deck, crafts a hand that looks strong but relies on deception. During a bathroom break, he secretly hides a critical duplicate card that could ruin him if discovered.

Quigley begins to sense something is off and challenges Tepper's apparent luck. He calls Tepper's bluff as the numbers near a win, escalating the tension.

Tension erupts when Quigley shatters a chair over Avery's head in a shocking act. The room devolves from a game to a reckoning, with loyalties strained to the breaking point.

Carla, Tepper's girlfriend, contacts him over the intercom and confesses that she initiated the plan. She reveals she is tired of the game and then leaves, deepening Tepper's isolation.

A 911 call about Avery's injury brings the police back into the scene. Tepper and the others try to steady Avery while admitting they still have his winning ticket, and Tepper offers it to the officer for safekeeping.

One by one the players leave the room, with Avery sitting on the edge of retirement and his future uncertain. Tepper clings to the winning ticket in reserve, hoping for a resolution that might salvage something.

Tepper makes a final, uneasy phone call to Carla, hoping for some closure amid the wreckage. The conversation underscores how fragile their scheme has become and hints at consequences still to come.

The real Avery Phillips finally steps into the aftermath, revealing the complex history behind the night's events. Tepper is left to face the consequences of his choices as the ensemble's dynamics linger, offering a meditation on luck, debt, and friendship.