Animal Kingdom - The Leopard - Review: "Lucy, Pope, and Smurf Walk Into an Ending..."

You guys, I am so sorry I haven't been here for you after this episode! I didn't know so much was going to happen or I would have gotten to you all at least a day earlier! So, let's go ahead and get into it right now!

Keys to the Kingdom
Craig, Deran, J, Pope, and Nicky(!) successfully pulled off a yacht heist, with the help of good ol' Marco. Why Marco? They needed a Spanish translator and Baz dropped out of the job to focus on that money he's stealing from Smurf, among other things. It's ok, though everything went just fine! Except for the fact that Marco cut off a woman's finger. Oh, and they also owe Marco a favor now.

After stealing Smurf's safes, Baz focused on cleaning them out, spending time with his ex-co-adulterer/current girlfriend, Lucy, and setting up some things to ensure that Smurf won't be a problem for him in the future. He stole a gun from Smurf, shot Javi's dead body, and threw the gun in the hole. Clearly his Smurf plans are pretty large-scale.

J and Nicky got close during a celebration at Deran's bar, while Craig left to rekindle a romance of sorts with Renn, the girl he stole from while she was OD'd.

Pope was having some trouble coping with the thing he did to Catherine. You know, that murder thing. But, so far, he's been able to convince himself he was doing it to save his family because she was likely a confidential informant. Still didn't help much though, especially with Amy telling him how great of a person he is.

Smurf? She went on a rampage to find out what happened to her safes, and discovered Baz to be the culprit. Lucky for J, she has no idea he was involved.

This Week's Prey

As Craig parties hard at the casino with Renn and many other women, Deran gets another visit from Adrian. After telling another bartender to take care of a group of people (who simply ordered "shots". Not vodka shots, or rum shots, but just shots.), Deran and Adrian slip into the back room to talk for a bit. Adrian mentions he's getting ready for one last surfing tournament, the two reminisce about the old days. Adrian says that Deran seems a lot more like the surf champion version of Deran lately, and then kisses him. It's adorable, really. I hope these crazy kids make it.

At home, Baz looks through some of the documents he's stolen from Smurf and comes across a folder marked "Blackwell", which you may recall is Baz's last name. Or maybe, like me, you would have had to Google it. Either way, it's his last name, and inside the folder were several pictures of a young boy who clearly was the victim of some abuse. While Baz looks at pictures of his younger self, Lucy comes into the room and he puts them away. While they discuss the money and when to tell the rest of the family, Smurf listens in on the conversation with her super-secret listening device that she planted in the house. But it's not a problem for Baz, because, as he remarks, he's sure that she knows it was him by this point. They kiss for a bit, and Lucy says she has to work early, which prompts bad to call her important. She assures him that she is. And she's not lying. But we're not there yet.

Pope cleans up at Amy's place and discovers a brand-new toothbrush Amy bought for him. He goes to ask her about it, and they talk about how much she misses her son, and whether she'll ever get him back. Pope assures her that she will because she's a good mom, and then she invites him to join her at his baseball game so they can meet, saying her brother will understand that it's important. Revisiting this moment breaks my heart, but, again, we're not there yet.

J and Nicky enjoy a quiet evening in, as Nicky reads Craig's various drunk texts. He apparently has broken up with her through text 11 times that evening, but ensures her that they can still hook up if she wants to. Nicky and J laugh to each other, and J is clearly happy to have her back in his life. She seems happy to be there as well, but she changes her mind a lot, so we'll see. Smurf walks past them with a shovel, and J hops up to see what's up. He helps her dig for some secret money, and she reveals that she learned about Baz's thievery. She tells him to lay off the credit card for now and gives him a wad of cash.

The next day, J is woken up by Nicky asking for a ride to school because she has an exam to get to (and a cocaine score). I guess J doesn't have to go to school for some reason? Or maybe he doesn't care? I'm not really sure what's going on there. J agrees to borrow Smurf's car to take her. On the way out, they run into Baz, who wants to talk to J for a moment. J lets him know that Smurf knows, and Baz hands him an envelope full of cash, assuring him that he's not going to tell Smurf about J's involvement. J accepts the money, and heads out with Nicky.

Baz heads into Smurf's house to get his daughter for school(!) and walks in on Smurf and Lena making a pie. Lena tries to express her excitement over the pie, but Baz simply tells her to get her stuff for school, disappointing her for what must be the millionth time. While she's out of the room, Smurf and Baz talk about the storage unit, with Baz noting there's over $10 million after he sells all of the jewelry. When she asks if he's keeping it all, he tells her he's going to split it evenly between the boys like she should have been, and she insinuates that she was. He brings up the watches, and she says she was going to sell them in a few years and split the money with everyone, but Baz suggests she's holding them as evidence against all of them. He immediately jumps into his negotiation pitch, which involves Smurf signing some buildings over to him so he can launder the money himself. In exchange, he won't tell the others that she's been stealing money from them and holding on to evidence. He tells her she only has a couple of days.

Craig's morning begins when he is woken up beneath a pile of women by Marco, who is ready to tell Craig about the favor he has to do. Marco gives Craig a car to "babysit", and when Craig tries to check it for drugs, he discovers that there is someone in the trunk. His perfect solution to this problem is to drive to Deran's bar and bring the hostage teenager inside. Deran is of course less than thrilled with this, but locks up the place and helps subdue the hostage. They try to contact Marco for answers, but he just tells them to wait until he sends an address. They try to figure out exactly who this kid is, but he's putting up a tough front, even when they give him a sandwich. Their questioning is interrupted when Renn shows up looking to collect the money she loaned Craig the night before. Craig gets rid of her, but when they return to the room, the kid has escaped. They catch up to him, and after a short trouble, he begins pleading with them, saying that if they deliver him he's going to be killed. We'll check in on that later.

Baz takes Lena to school, where she asks if she can go with him when he leaves because she heard him talking with Lucy about leaving. Literally, every single time this little girl is on screen my heart breaks for her. He says that he isn't going anywhere, and that he'll always take her wherever he goes. She also asks if grandma Smurf can join them too, and he tells her again that he's not going anywhere. He takes her out of the car and hands her things to her, then she runs to school before he can finish saying goodbye to her. I hope she's got some good friends, or a nice teacher. Baz then goes to deal with his daddy issues and confronts his father. He mentions that he used to think Smurf made up half of the things she said his father did to him until he came across the pictures, which he puts in front of his father's face. His father tells him that Smurf tied him up and beat with a pipe that night he did that, and Baz tells him (and possibly tries to convince himself) that Smurf didn't save him, and that the damage was done. He leaves, telling his father to stop calling and that he'll never see Baz again.

When J gets back to Smurf's she introduces him to a lawyer, and they begin discussions about giving J power of attorney over all of Smurf's assets, replacing Baz. J asks Smurf if she's okay, and then begins filling out the paperwork. J will have all the power over Baz, which is sure to be exciting in the future. J later picks Nicky up from school in a brand-new truck he bought, and invites her to just drive around. They end up on a cliff where J's mom used to meet her drug dealer, and they talk for a while. Nicky says if she were him, she would have been pissed to find out he had rich family less than a mile away from where he lived with his mom, and wonders why he isn't angry. He says he's angry all the time, then they totally do it right out there in the open. Unfortunately, this is the only kind of happy ending that will occur this week. You're welcome, that joke was gold.

Pope spent his morning sitting near Catherine's burial site and did a bit of reflecting on his life recently, particularly all the times Lena has asked about her mother. This drives him to find Patrick, the cop that threatened Baz, and confront him about Catherine. After Pope makes sure to get him worked up, Patrick insists that Catherine was not snitching on the family, even though she knew that Pope burned her parents. She has such loyalty. Well, had. Before she was, you know, smothered with a pillow. As Smurf is later gathering some jewelry to sell from a suitcase in the closet Pope surprises her by blurting out from his perch in front of her bed that Catherine never talked to the police. He tells her about the confrontation with Patrick, and Smurf tries to say that he's lying, before caving and saying that she would have talked eventually. Pope shoves her against the wall as though he's ready to commit a second homicide, only to break down crying in her arms before telling her to get off of him. He walks away less than thrilled, and Smurf runs off to have her stolen jewelry seller find a way to sell the jewelry from the yacht.

Our eventful ending begins with Baz, who goes for a short walk before opening his cell phone and dialing the police.

We then see Pope at Amy's house, clearly not in a good place. He asks if God can really forgive anything bad a person's done, and asks if she can forgive anything. She says he can tell her what he did, and it's probably one of the worst mistakes she's made. Next to the drunk driving thing that almost killed her son, and getting really close to a murderous criminal, though to be fair she didn't really have a reason to suspect that. He gives her very specific details about how he murdered Catherine, and she is understandably a little upset by this. By upset, I mean she's hysterically crying, backing away, telling him to stop, and telling him to leave. He's also pretty hysterical at this point and tires to tell her he'd never do that to her, but he respects her wishes and leaves, then sits in front of her door and cries.

Not bad enough? Fine. Up next, Craig and Deran arrive at the designated spot with the hostage and wait for Marco. When he shows up, they try to ask what's going to happen to the kid, but he insists that they don't need to know. As he starts to leave, Deran lets him know that they are never doing anything for him again, and that if Deran sees him again, he'll knock him out. As a car pulls up, Marco tells them to get out of there, but they don't and a woman steps out of the car. Is it some random woman? Absolutely not. IT'S FREAKING LUCY!!! What?! She pistol whips Marco in the head and yells at him for a bit before sending him off. She momentarily regards Deran and Craig, who, like me, are utterly speechless, then hops into her car and drives away. Wow, what an ending right?

Wrong! They still aren't done with us. As Smurf is driving home, she gets pulled over by a cop car. She hides a bag under the seat, then reaches into her glove box for some ID. She definitely finds it. In the glove box are several of her false passports, and as she rifles through them, two more cop cars show up and box her in, demanding that she keep her hands on the wheel. Baz walks into Smurf's empty house full of pride, takes a beer from the fridge, and then throws the pie from earlier right in the sink, which is much more of a statement than a mic drop. He then steps out onto the back patio to regard what he thinks now belongs to him, and we are finally set free from this crazy ride of an ending.

Animal Instincts
Wow. I just really don't know what to say here. I'm devastated to see the end of Pamy (or Amope, I hadn't picked a name for them yet), but I completely understand why it's as dead as Catherine. Amy is 100% a forgiving person, but there's only so much a person can forgive, and I think she certainly draws the line at murder. I don't think she'll call the police on him (unless she finds out about the church, too) but she's definitely done with the romance.

I couldn't help myself one week and I read all the press releases for the remainder of the season, so I knew that Smurf was going to end up in jail, but I just really love the how of it. I'm not entirely sure how making the police look into everything about her isn't going to cause some problems for Baz and the rest of the boys, but I'm more than ready to find out! I'm also pretty excited for Baz to find out that he owns absolutely nothing, and I'm wondering how J is going to deal with being power of attorney.

I'm also excited for Baz to find out about his Crazy (Ex-)Girlfriend! Yes, I know they're still together, but just let me make my reference in peace! I think this is what captured me the most this week, having already prepared for Smurf in prison. I don't know what I was expecting to happen out there, but I certainly wasn't expecting Lucy to step out of the car! I want to know everything about her now. I've always sensed something hiding under the surface, but she was never very important to me so I ignored it. I shouldn't have, but I did. Lesson learned!

Favorite Sights
J and Nicky being normal teenagers
Craig's drunk break-ups
Baz confronting his daddy issues
Smurf's preparations
Pope. Just all of Pope.
Ruthless Lucy!
Smurf's arrest!!
Pie Drop!!!

It's very hard for me to express all of my feelings currently, but bring up a topic in the comments and I'll gladly write you a paragraph about it! How shocked were you? Are you ready for tomorrow? What day do you think my review will come out this week? Sound off in the comments below!