Hey, look, a review of last week's episode! And on the night of the season finale, no less! Wow, who thought this would ever see the light of day? Such a special treat we have been given. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to watch the finale until Thursday, so I'm selfishly using this rehash of last week to hold me over until then. Now, let's get you pumped up for tonight!
Keys to the Kingdom
Let's start with J. He and Nicky laughed about Craig's multiple drunken breakup texts to Nicky until Smurf started digging for some money in the yard. She gave J a huge wad of cash after telling him to lay off the credit card for a while, and he used that money to buy himself a nice truck. After a test Nicky had at school, the two of them made their way to a cliff, had a nice verbal talk, then talked with their bodies right there in the open.
In the wake of a successful boat heist, Craig and Deran were forced into a kidnapping situation when Marco called to cash in on the favor they owe him for his help on the yacht. After much internal debating, they brought the kidnapped boy to the designated location, only to find that Marco's sister/Baz's girlfriend, Lucy, was the head honcho of this kidnapping. Or if not the head, she was pretty important. Obviously, the boys were at a loss for words.
Pope discovered once and for all that Catherine was not a confidential informant at the time he murdered her, meaning that Smurf has been lying to him the entire time, and he therefore killed a woman for no real reason. Overcome with the guilt on fully understanding what he'd done, Pope decided to confess to his girlfriend Amy, because she said he could tell her anything. Murder seems to be the exception, though, as she promptly kicked him out of her apartment.
Baz and Smurf played a giant game of chess, though they were both moving many pieces that the other could not see. Baz played the framing/blackmailing game, while Smurf played the keep-away game. Though Baz had all of the money from Smurf's safes, he did not yet have a way to launder the money and intended to force Smurf to sign over some property to him. Smurf, however, was fully aware Baz would need some of her properties and decided to allocate her power of attorney from Baz to J to ensure Baz got nothing if anything went wrong. Boy, was that lucky. Through the frame job Baz set up, Smurf was later arrested for Javi's murder, leaving Baz to feel as though he was on top of the world. He had absolutely no idea that his power of attorney had been revoked.
This Week's Prey
This episode starts off with the first cold open in recent memory as we watch Smurf being processed while hatred for Baz oozes out of her eyes. Speaking of Baz, he's pretty busy hosting a giant party at Smurf's house, continuously assuring people that she won't be coming home tonight. For some reason, they're all perfectly okay with the fact that Baz is the only one she would have told this to, despite the two of them being on the worst terms. J questions this momentarily with Nicky, but she dismisses it and the party continues. Nicky runs out of drugs at one point and looks for Craig to collect the money she's owed from the boat job. She finds him naked with a woman and after a short argument about payment Nicky takes a small bag of coke and leaves the room. Good for her standing up for herself! She eventually locates J and pulls him into the garage so they can talk to each other with their bodies again.
Now, where is Pope? Well, as Baz learns, he is certainly not at Amy's. Baz knocks and lets her know who he is, and she quickly responds that Andrew hasn't told her anything. That's terribly suspicious, but Baz graciously ignores this and doesn't find out that Pope killed Catherine. I wasn't ready for that to happen, so I'm glad it didn't I can only handle so much! After Baz assures her he's just trying to find Pope because he's worried, she tells him he sometimes hangs out in the desert, but she doesn't know where. He thanks her, apologizes for scaring her, and leaves. Pope is actually sitting by the ocean getting ready to commit suicide! Just as he is about to pull the trigger, his cellphone rings, stopping him dead in his tracks. J is calling because Lena was just tackled off of her toy ATV moments before being rolled over by a car and he doesn't know where Baz is. Shocker. Infuriated, Pope shows up to the party, grabs a shotgun, unplugs the sound system, and screams for everyone to leave as he cocks the shotgun. Everyone suddenly very eager to leave. Baz shows back up and Pope demands to know where Smurf is, leading Baz to reveal that she is in jail.
Back at the house, J gets a call from Smurf while Baz is mere feet away, but J smoothly plays it off as a conversation with a friend from school. After making sure none of the other boys were involved in framing her, she tells J to grab some security footage from the house to prove that Baz stole her gun, then tasks him with bringing the footage to her in jail. J agrees, and after talking his way around Baz, attempts to grab the footage. He discovers, however, that the footage has been wiped clean (because Baz is awful, but he's not an idiot) then grabs Nicky and says they have to go.
While J makes his journey, Baz goes to see about his power of attorney, only to discover that everything now belongs to J. He's quite peeved and leaves, telling the lawyer to let Smurf know he's thinking about her. When the lawyer meets with Smurf later, Smurf admits that she knew Baz could do something like this from the moment she took him in, but she didn't want to believe it because she loved him. Whether this was real Smurf or fake Smurf I really can't say, but I felt the feels regardless. Her lawyer informs her of Baz's reaction to not being power of attorney, and the makes sure Smurf understands that they need to find hard evidence if she wants to get out.
During this time, Craig and Deran decide that they need to visit Smurf today so it doesn't look like they betrayed her. They're smart enough to know they don't want to be on Smurf's bad side. Also during this time, Pope decides to pull a few jobs on his own. Just a few. Like two or three. Or maybe, like, ten. He robs a bunch of banks, and I want to be mad at him, but he didn't hurt anybody, and he's doing it all for Lena. Kind of like how Walter White initially started becoming a drug lord to provide for his family. We all rooted for him, so why not root for Pope, too! Pope then returns to make this new deposit into the trust, but the man tells him it would raise too many red flags. We then learn that this man was the inside man on the bank job that landed Pope in jail, but Pope refused to give the man up in exchange for a lighter sentence. After Pope reminds him of this, Pope once again insists that he find a way to deposit the money. There are not further arguments.
During J's visit with Smurf, he informs her that Baz has deleted all the files. She tells him he needs to immediately claim his power of attorney, and that it will come with an envelope and instructions on where the envelope needs to go. J expresses concerns about Baz knowing J has the power of attorney, letting her know that Baz wants to sell everything. Smurf simply tells J not to let Baz do anything, and to stall until she is able to get out. J then goes to grab his power of attorney with Nicky, who is very high and flipping vigorously through magazines. Before J leaves, he gets confirmation on exactly how much power he has, then sets off to deliver the envelope containing $10,000. When J returns home with Nicky, they pass Lucy who requests a quick conversation with J. She tells him that he is Baz's biggest regret, and that Baz loved J's mother, but Smurf pushed them apart. She's clearly heavily insinuating that she knows for a fact Baz is J's father, and she says that maybe this can be a fresh start for J and Baz. J simply says "maybe" and Lucy asks him to swear that he won't bring this conversation up to Baz.
Smurf receives her second visit of the day from Craig and Deran, during which they ask for clarification about what Baz told them. She admits that she kept all of that money, but says she was saving it for all of them to use in case they every needed "rainy day money." She also assures them that she had much more than $1.4 million in that storage unit and that Baz is holding out on them. She then keeps talking and pushes doubts into their heads about Baz's loyalty. She then tells them that J has power of attorney. Though she would have preferred it be one of them, she reminds them that they weren't being very civil with her at the time. She then tasks them with protecting J because there's no telling what Smurf would do. They then meet up with Baz at Smurf's house and demand their cut of the cash. They tell Baz that Smurf told them there was more in the safe, and that they know J has power of attorney. Baz throws a fit (classic Baz!) and throws the suitcase at them to let them take their cut.
Smurf receives a third visit later that day from Pope and Lena. She flashes Lena a huge smile, then glares daggers at Pope for bringing her here. Pope tells Lena that she's never going to see her grandma again and that he brought her here to say goodbye to her. He tells her she's done bad things and now she has to pay for them. Lena says goodbye, put Smurf says this is simply "later, gator" and then winks at her. It's a beautiful and heartbreaking moment all at the same time.
At the end of our episode, Lucy entices Nicky away from J with some cocaine, so Baz can have a quick word with J. Baz says that tomorrow they are going to a lawyer and sorting everything out. J simply agrees, and we then watch as Smurf is led back into her cell.
Animal Instincts
I am terribly upset that I won't be able to watch this immediately. There are so many bombs that are just begging to be set off, and they've been building up to a big finale for a few episodes now. I don't see any world in which Smurf doesn't come out on top, but I have no idea how she's going to make it there. I think Baz just needs to go away forever, and the rest of the family can all work together to raise Lena, because they have each individually proven to be better at it than Baz is.
I loved the dynamic shifts between each of Smurf's visits. J's visit seemed very trusting and to the point, while Craig and Deran's was full of planning and manipulation. Pope's visit just contained pure contempt for each other, as well as a mutual love for Lena, the poor little girl who never asked for or deserved any of the things she's been pulled into.
Also noteworthy this episode was Lucy's manipulation tactics. She gave Nicky some advice about working her way into the family, and is starting to form a dangerous bond with her. She made a fantastic attempt with J as well, though I'm not sure if he actually believes anything she told him. He seems to be fairly decent at reading people, and he definitely didn't trust what she was saying.
Favorite Sights
Pope's dedication to Lena
J's secret phone call
All three of Smurf's jail visits
Baz slowly realizing how difficult this is going to be
Craig and Deran trying to look out for themselves!
I hope you'll all think of me as you watch tonight's finale. Or at least after it's all over and you're done freaking out about it. What do you think we're going to see? What do you think Lucy's endgame is? Will Smurf ever be released so she can drink some more Vodka Crans? Sound off in the comments below!
