S4E1 · Welcome to the Alternate Economy

Complete story — includes the ending

In 1920 Kansas City, Missouri, the bosses of a Jewish crime organization, the Moskowitz Syndicate, and an Irish gang, the Milligan Concern, trade their youngest sons to keep the peace. However, Milligan's son, Patrick, betrays his adoptive family, allowing the Irish to ambush and wipe out the Syndicate, with Patrick's father forcing him to personally execute Moskowitz's son. In 1934, the Milligan Concern and the newly arrived Sardinian Fadda Family go through the same peace offering, with Patrick Milligan again being exchanged. This time, Patrick betrays his Irish family and they are destroyed in a similar ambush by the Faddas. Patrick is forced to execute his father. In 1949, an African American gang, the Cannon Limited, come to power, and leader Loy Cannon trades sons with the Fadda Family. Loy's youngest son, Satchel, is exchanged for Don Donatello Fadda's youngest son, Zero. Patrick, who is now nicknamed "Rabbi," empathetically promises Loy that he will personally look out for Satchel. One year later, while at a stop sign, Donatello Fadda is accidentally shot in the jugular by children with a BB gun, and is rushed to the city's top private hospital. The hospital director, Dr. Harvard, is prejudiced against Italians and demands that they leave. Donatello's son, Josto, swears revenge. At a lesser-quality public hospital, Josto bonds briefly with Donatello's nurse, Oraetta Mayflower. Later that afternoon, Mayflower kills Donatello with a morphine injection and steals his ring. Meanwhile, bright and rebellious mixed-race teenager Ethelrida Pearl Smutny, whose parents run a funeral home, has a conversation with her father Thurman about their financial problems. For unknown reasons, Thurman has accepted a large loan from Loy which he is unable to repay. Unknown to them, Mayflower is watching them from her apartment across the street, and has taken a peculiar interest in Ethelrida.