This episode was exactly the episode this season needed. Focused, tense, insightful and strangely funny, this episode gave me hope that this season is going somewhere, and that the show may not entirely be spinning it's wheels (though if it is, it's doing it better than most shows likely would). The strongest episodes of most shows tend to be when several major characters are confined together and are forced to interact with one another, which can often lead to powerful and emotional scenes, while also serving to make us care more about the characters. For example, by far the strongest episode of this series is season two's "Walk This Way", an episode which pretty much brought the entire main cast together.
I've talked about this a little before, and it's pretty clear now that this show is at it's finest when it brings it's characters (and great actors) together, and give them a chance to connect in meaningful ways. But despite the family being the best and most important part of the show, you don't often see everyone together like this (along with Lena and Avi). Generally, what brings the family together is another stupid, ill-advised Mickey scheme.
Bringing the characters together can result in very powerful scenes, such as the one towards the end of the episode between Ray and Abby, which was perhaps one of the series' finest scenes, from both a writing and acting standpoint. Ray lets Abby know of the pretty terrible position professionally he finds himself in, while she informs him of her "stage zero" breast cancer, and her decision not to get treatment for it. It's a scene that not only gives me hope that Abby's story line this season is worthwhile, but it reinforced the connection between these two characters, who are so often at odds with one another.
This episode also very much proved that the Belikov aspect of the show is not going away anytime soon, when a Russian assassin is sent to kill Ray at his home, leading to Abby shooting said assassin in the back of the head to stop him from killing Ray. This was probably the closest Ray's business has come to hurting his family, and it forces the entire Donovan clan to go into hiding. Abby's reaction to killing a man was startling in its realism, as she completely breaks down in the aftermath, thus giving some of the best material Paula Malcomson has had to work with on the show so far.
And while we saw the last of Detective Muncie in this episode (bye, Michael Hyatt), we did learn who was actually behind the hit on Ray, with the reveal that Sonia Kovitzky of that art gallery from the season premiere is actually a powerful mob boss. It's a little too early for me to form a judgement of this story line, though it does represent a change of pace for this show, which usually feels very erm...masculine. Having a female antagonist is, therefore, a welcome addition thus far.
I won't spend much time on Mickey or Bunch in this review. Mickey goes ahead with his plan to steal the four million dollar horseshoe (a plan that included night vision goggles), and he is double-crossed by his partner (whose name I believe is Ed), who runs off with the money. I was pretty indifferent to all of that. Bunchy became a dad, and so the show found something for him to do other than have weird sex with his wife. I don't have much to say on that. I suppose Mickey finding out and getting the picture of baby Maria was a nice moment.
This episode had some unexpected moments of comedy, which were welcome. For example, the removal of the body of the Russian assassin was like something out of Fargo, possibly going even further once the characters tried hiding a freshly-made corpse from Connor (who is still very much an arsehole in every respect). And the scene in which Terry and Daryll sit in the gym quoting movies at each other while awaiting the arrival of a hitman was a welcome moment of levity.
The one thing in this episode that I didn't like was the return of Ken Cosgrove i.e Bridget's teacher. Not even my love for Ken Cosgrove (one of Mad Men's best supporting characters) could make me enjoy that story line last season, with it being one of the worst examples of teen angst drama on television since Dana on Homeland (I'm sorry for reminding you all of that if you had forgotten it). I get that Bridget going down a bit of a dark path is supposed to sort of mirror what happened to Ray's sister (also named Bridget), but that doesn't mean it's going to make for great television. This season has started out fairly well, and then with the single image of Bridget and Ken Cosgrove having sex in a car, some of my hope died. The episode went on to be pretty great, and so I hope that Bridget's creepy romance is less prominent this year than it was last year so that this season can go on to be pretty great too.
