How is drinking less soda going? Assuming you read the last review and are laying off of it until I post on Wednesday. If that doesn't apply to you, ignore it, and I'm deeply offended. This week, my insides were constantly moving with anticipation and fear. Things got pretty intense this week, but before we talk about that...
Keys to the Kingdom
Last week, we were treated to the grand opening of Deran's bar! We also got to see Deran come out to Smurf, which provided its own intrigues
We also got to see our boys get fed up with Baz during preparation for their church heist, but after some brotherly, jumping-off-a-crane bonding everyone but Craig was back on board for the heist.
Nicky and J made steps towards getting closer again, while Nicky took steps to start getting what she wants, thanks to Smurf.
In addition to empowering Nicky, Smurf was seen several times being paranoid that Javi was going to show up and do her in due to past squabbles. She was even about to shoot a couple guys in a plumbing truck.
Perhaps our most important development last week was Pope going on his first date with Amy, the girl from the church that he's planning on robbing. He asked about ways a person might work on forgiving themselves, and admitting to being in prison for several years. All of this talk prompted a kiss that Pope certainly enjoyed. They're going places.
This Week's Prey
This week begins with a high-octane opening as we see J working he way through a shooting gallery. There's probably a better name for that, but I clearly have very little experience with guns, so forgive me, gun people. After he shoots every target, save for one in a balcony, Smurf has him go through again before moving on to what I'm calling a shooting range. His aim is less than fantastic there, prompting Smurf to get into the classic teaching-your-date-how-to-mini-golf pose. Except, instead of a golf club it's a heavy-duty gun (I think), and instead of a date, it's her grandson, which will never not be creepy. Regardless, grandma's creepy assistance proves helpful and J improves. When they return home later, Smurf gives J Deran's old room (since he's sleeping at the bar now), which just happens to share a bathroom with Nicky's bedroom. What a coincidence...
We then pop in on Deran who steals a truck from an airport parking lot for the heist, which Baz is in the middle of reviewing back at his place, where there is absolutely zero signs of Lena being around. Hopefully it's just because she's at school, but I'm positive he still isn't being a father. His review is interrupted when Lucy shows up for a visit. He gives her the money he got for her brother's bracelet and tells her she should come back tonight when he's finished with his "work stuff".
Next, we check in on Pope at the church praying. Perhaps begging forgiveness in advance? A GPS tracker on his phone alerts him of a delivery, and he then helps Amy stock shelves in the storage room at the church with boxes of T-shirts and DVDs. As they work, Amy mentions how much it means to her that Pope donated $200 for the mission drive. On the surface, this seems like a generous act, until you realize he's about to get that money back anyways after they rob the church. But Amy doesn't know that of course, and suggestively tells Pope that he just might have earned a reward later, which seems to make Pope a bit uncomfortable. Guilty conscience?
Over at the bar, Deran and Craig get into a bit of a squabble. This is sparked when Deran asks if Craig plans on making the storage room at the bar his bedroom for the long-term. Craig tells Deran to kick him out if it's a problem, and things only escalate from there. Craig starts putting doubts in Deran's head about whether J is capable of moving the safe and Deran yells at him, calling Craig a baby for being upset that Deran didn't quit like he did. Things are kind of left there as Deran storms out of the room.
Smurf's morning ends up being less than fantastic as well. As she's walking down the street with a box of Deran's old things, the plumbing van from last week shows up, though this time it is not so benign. Two men hop out of the van and kidnap her. They take her quite a ways away for a nice little reunion with Javi. Who wouldn't like that? They take all of Smurf's things and Javi tells her he's been listening to Manny's tapes and he brings up an old job. Smurf tells him that was the job where his father ran off with everything from the take, but Javi isn't playing around. He tells her he knows that they killed him on that job as he holds a gun to her face. But it's ok, because if Smurf brings him $300K tomorrow, there's not a problem anymore and he won't give Manny's tapes to the cops. Money makes up for dead daddy. I'm still pretty positive he's gonna try to kill her anyways, but that's for another time. Javi and the boys ride away and leave Smurf in the middle of nowhere, so she starts walking home.
Back at Smurf's house, Craig and Nicky have a fun conversation. Craig is trying to have a nice, drug-filled day with her, but she brings up the job that everyone is doing without him. She wants to know why he's not helping, or if they just didn't want his help. Craig gets defensive and tells her he's just showing them that J won't come through, but Nicky brings up the very real possibility that J might do just fine and they'll realize they don't need Craig. She also scolds him for doing drugs while his brothers are out there working, as if they have some sort of normal career. How nice. Craig is finished with the conversation and storms away to start a day full of drugs by himself. She tries to call Pope, Baz, and finally J, but none of them answer because they're in the middle of robbing a church. Luckily, a semi drives up later and she catches a ride home.
Pope heads to a bible study while J and Baz go sit on a couple of toilets in the Men's room for a bit, where Baz plants another sound monitor. Pope leaves the study group to make sure the coast is clear, then helps Baz and J into the air vents. Deran pulls up outside in the stolen truck just as J and Baz discover that the vents are freezing instead of stifling hot. J mentions that whoever did HVAC recon (Deran) screwed up. Deran offers a weak defense, saying that it's "unseasonably warm today." J and Baz continue to make their way through the vents and watch as the money is moved into the storage room. Baz moves slides past a sharp tear in the vent that he doesn't seem to notice, and a menacing camera angle assures us that this tear will be a problem later.
The bible study ends, and Pope does some stalling while a couple of the members chit chat in the room for a bit. Pope decides now is the perfect time to talk about that reward that Amy promised him earlier. He has concerns about having sex with her, probably because the last time he was intimate with somebody was Catherine right before he murdered her. She reassures him that there's things they can do besides sex, and she actually doesn't want to have sex until marriage now anyways, so everything is ok. This talk was just enough time for the stragglers to leave, and the janitor comes in to kick Pope and Amy out for the night. As they exit the hallway with the storage room and the Janitor closes the doors, Pope pops into the Men's room for a second and says he'll meet Amy outside. After Amy and the Janitor walk away, Pope comes back out and snaps a key off in the door leading to the storage room hallway.
Pope and Amy make it out to her car, and Deran give J and Baz the all-clear, but then things get dicey. Craig, who has been mixing alcohol with some illegal substances, shows up and tells Deran he wants to be a part of the mission now. It's obviously a little late for that, which Deran tries to tell him, but Craig won't take no for an answer. As the two fight, Baz gets into position and tells Deran they are ready for the guard distraction. Of course, there is no answer because there's a brotherly brawl occurring. To make matters worse, J slides ride on top of that tear in the vent, and it snags pretty deep into his leg. He's stuck and can't move forward. Finally, Deran has the last word in the fight and prepares the distraction. Craig, who really is in no condition to operate a vehicle, speeds away on his motorcycle, and Deran speeds his stolen truck into a car, then speeds away to grab their getaway van. Deran tells Baz to go, and the real theft begins. Baz pops into the storage room and blacks out the camera, then waits for J. When J doesn't answer, Baz pops into the vent J was supposed to come out of to see what's up. When he realizes J is caught, Baz prepares him for a count of three, but the yanks him forward before the counting even begins.
Once J is inside the storage room, they put duct tape on his leg and then spray the room with a foam that will help to sound-proof the room a bit. As they start drilling, they make sure their planted sound monitors aren't picking up the noise, then go all-out on digging out the safe. While they prepare to lift the safe from the floor, the security guard heads back to his station and notices the camera in the storage room is blacked out. He dispatches the janitor to go check things out, but he runs into trouble when he can't get his key into the keyhole thanks to Pope breaking off the key. This set-back gives Baz and J just enough time to finish the job and flee into the getaway van. They have successfully robbed a church. While Craig speeds through the city and ends up crashing onto a beach, our church thieves use a crane in an open junkyard to crack open their safe. Once they rejoice in their take, they give the van a nice crane demolition before dealing with J's leg. They attempt to use a soldering iron, but J tells them to switch to a staple gun. It gets the job done.
Pope and Amy are enjoying some quality movie time with Amy's roommate, but Amy give her roommate a nonverbal "get the hell outta here" cue so Amy and Pope can have some alone time. The two make out for a bit before beginning one of the strangest sex-ish scenes I have witnessed. They take their clothes off and touch themselves while they breathe on each other, only making contact to kiss a couple of times. They both seem to really enjoy it, so I guess I can't really say anything bad about it. Shortly after, Pope sits on Amy's couch and listens as she gets a phone call about the stolen money. We hear her break down and Pope has some sort of reaction, though who can really tell at this point what he's thinking.
We end our episode with several developments. Deran returns to his empty bar looking for Craig, while Craig is being picked up from the beach by some cops. Baz returns home, not to Lena, but to Lucy. I have no idea where Lena is at the moment. Hopefully Nicky has been taking care of her while Smurf has been trucking it home. Nicky walks into the bathroom she now shares with J and sees him getting out of the shower with his badly injured leg. She offers to help him, and it's a nice moment. Smurf finally makes it back home and walks into J's room and shouts his name. I was positive she was going to say something about him not answering his phone, but she asks where his gun is before handing to him herself. She tells him "Once you decide to shoot, you keep shooting." Then she leaves.
Animal Instincts
It finally happened, everyone. They finally robbed the church. I have to say, I worry about the person I'm turning into because of this show. Many times I found myself thinking, "Boy, I really hope they rob the church without a problem." I can honestly say that I've never wished so fully that a group of men would successfully rob a church. However, I do feel the need to express some disappointment in Pope. He clearly is falling hard for Amy, and actually cares about her as a person, yet he let this heist happen despite the several times he could have sabotaged it, knowing how much all of the money meant to her. I also do understand his loyalty to his brothers, and it helps that hearing her cry in the kitchen when she heard the news really did seem to hurt him as well. I'm not sure how he's going to handle things moving forward. I'm thinking he might at least take his cut from the heist and donate it towards rebuilding the fund they had worked so hard on. He also might just end up hurting her. Even more extreme, he may end up just killing her like he did Catherine. You know, Baz's wife, Catherine. The dead one. Pope smothered her. Classic.
Also this episode, part of me really enjoyed how much Nicky and J seemed to reconnect. Not that I like Nicky now, but I'm glad she seems to be moving back to someone within her own decade. This Craig thing just seems illegal to me. When she told J she liked the way he was dressed before the heist happened, there was clearly some longing there, and later she helped him with his leg wound as he got out of the shower naked as if it was nothing. There's definitely still some sort of chemistry happening here.
I'd also just like to say that if anyone woke me up out of a sound sleep just to tell me to keep shooting, I would be livid. You don't disturb a person's slumber. That's just rude. Though, I'm still convinced she's angry at him and just wanted an excuse to wake him up.
Favorite Sights
Nicky distancing herself from Craig
Deran distancing himself from Craig
Just Craig getting told what's up in general
A successful church heist!
Awkward non-sex breathing time!
We're officially halfway through the season! did you guys enjoy the heist? Do you think Pope will try to at least kind of do the right thing, or will he murder her? I'm apparently not leaving room for an in-between option. Sound off in the comments below!
