Can of worms = Open.
So much happened tonight. Let’s start small and work our way toward the big revelation that closed the episode.
It seems Julien, for all of his hard work in trying to fit in, is doing Vic, Shane, and Ronnie, no good on their little plan that involves pitting the Mexicans against the Armenians. He tracked down this Rios fellow and it was all Vic, Shane, and Ronnie could do to tell him (Rios) to hit the road without Julien catching wind of their misdeeds. Later, Claudette makes a snarky remark about Julien doing all the work. I rather like that Julien is becoming a (well-intentioned) thorn in Vic Mackey’s side.
Cassidy continues to be a burden on the plot progression. I get the facet of Vic’s family life coming unglued due to his misgivings over the course of the series, but Autumn Chiklis simply cannot act, and her blankness hampers what could be an important plot point. Her acting aside, I see her SOMEHOW catching wind of Shane’s blackmail pile – somehow. Anyway, they’re really foreshadowing that Vic’s family will somehow play a part in his downfall, despite his best efforts to protect them. I kind of hope they’re not going to go this route, to be honest. It just seems too obvious, and quite frankly, I don’t know how much more of Cassidy I can stomach.
The war between Rezian’s peeps and Pezuela’s peeps reached catastrophic proportions tonight when it was revealed that Robert Martin, the guy whose arm was twisted last season by Vic in hopes of saving his job, was a part of Pezuela’s blackmail, and was flatly assassinated by a Mexi banger. Ronnie called him earlier about his deals with insider trading in a deliciously diabolical sequence where he told him that his secret would spill on the streets lest he erect a statue that symbolizes some sort of Armenian rememberance. This was the only way to convince Pezuela that Rezian was lying about NOT having the box o’ blackmail, and to refuel an already-dying war. Boy, Ronnie and Vic were just ASKING to get this poor guy greased, and I didn’t even see it coming. Aceveda was clearly upset at Martin’s murder, though Vic assured him that Olivia was looking into Rios’ ties to the cartel that Pezuela is using to buy up Farmington.
BOMBSHELL: Seems Olivia, too, was in Pezuela’s blackmail box – for what reason, we don’t yet know, but it sets up one of the best closing plot twists of the entire series, with Aceveda fearful of how much Vic has told her. Enough to ruin their chances at nailing Pezuela, and enough “to get us both killed.” – Whoo boy, it’s only four episodes in and the dominoes are starting to topple already. I knew this box of blackmail would be a plot Macguffin, but they’re really trying to make it more than that, and doing a good job of it.
I’d go into detail about Dutch’s side-story of the kid who is a serial killer in the making, but quite frankly, it didn’t really capture my attention as much as it should have. Dutch has been down this road so many times; wasn’t he, at one point in the series, THE guy most likely to truly nail Vic? What gives?
9 episodes left until it’s all over with. Sigh.
Joseph Henson is a film-critic and would-be screenwriter. If you enjoyed his observations, please feel free to leave him a comment or two.
