What's in the Box?

**"What's in the Box?"** is the sixth episode of the second season of The Politician.

## Summary

A shocking ballot-box twist positions Payton at the moral and ethical crossroads that could define the rest of his political career- and life.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

After three days of recounts, Dede and Payton are officially tied. This leaves two courses of action that both candidates must agree on: an election redo in ten days or a coin flip. Neither campaign is confident in their ability to win a revote. In lieu of a coin flip, Hadassah poses a match of rock paper scissors, a.k.a. roshambo.

Payton knows Hadassah’s up to something with the rock paper scissors match and prepares to optimize the game for himself. He brings in an expert: Ricardo, who has mastered the game while in prison. Of course, Hadassah didn’t suggest the game without a plan of her own, relying on a researched methodology to secure Dede the victory.
But as if the result of an election being left up to a game of rock paper scissors isn’t enough drama, Infinity reveals to Team Hobart that she stole an official ballot box. It’s a situation so dire, Skye brings the recently-fired James back into the fold. Worried about the result of the election and what a win for Dede would cost the earth, Infinity stole a box from the most Standish-leaning polling place. The theft presents Payton with a dilemma: turn in the box and lose or hide it and cheat his way to a maybe victory.
Payton’s dilemma poses a different predicament for Alice. Shopping for baby clothes with Astrid, Alice shares that she is worried about her baby’s future. She has deferred all her ambitions to help Payton achieve his dreams — and feels like she is become a worse person for it. With the roshambo date looming, Alice announces to Payton that she is leaving him. Using the ballot box theft as an example, she explains that Payton’s created an environment of moral ambiguity around him and she doesn’t like what it has turned her into. She needs time to figure out what she wants, away from his all-consuming ambitions.

Meanwhile, this election has also taken a toll on Dede, whose marriage to Marcus is officially over thanks to the Times leak. Exhausted by the decades of scheming, she reveals to Hadassah that win or lose the election, this is her last go-around.
Georgina, now the Governor-elect of California, comes to Payton’s aid as he ponders his ballot box dilemma. While he’s stuck on the moral/ethical quandary of it all, his mother has a more nuanced take. She tells Payton that knowing him, it is less about him struggling with what to do, it is more about being ready to accept his fate. This advice is exactly the reminder that Payton needed that his dream is to make it into the White House and he will do whatever it takes to get there.

## Cast

### Main

* Ben Platt as Payton Hobart
* Judith Light as Dede Standish
* Lucy Boynton as Astrid Sloan
* Zoey Deutch as Infinity Jackson
* Julia Schlaepfer as Alice Charles
* Laura Dreyfuss as McAfee Westbrook
* Theo Germaine as James Sullivan
* Rahne Jones as Skye Leighton
* Bette Midler as Hadassah Gold
* Gwyneth Paltrow as Georgina Hobart

### Guest

* Benjamin Barrett as Ricardo
* Daryl Edwards as J. Tank Brown