lazylou

I disagree. It is true she has the buildings which she has used to launder her money, but Baz said he had $750K with just his first duffel bag full. If you look at the suitcases he has boarded in the wall, he ended up with a lot more. Throughout the show, she has been very tight with money, an issue in both seasons between her and the boys. Now Baz has all of her bank and the boys are threatening to cut her off, or at best to give her 10 or 15% of the take...and Baz will not even do that. They have suspected her of taking more than her share for a long time, and the size of the bank seems to prove the point. At the very least, her laundry operation does not seem able to handle as much money as she actually has. She goes after Jake to get her money back...and shoots him when she finds he has already spent half of it. Of course she is also seeking revenge by shooting him, so certainly she will want to hurt Baz. But kill him? maybe. But given a choice between her millions and revenge, I think she takes the cash and lets the killing go...

Smurf usually gets someone else to do her dirty work. Pope/Catherine, Deek/Javi, Javi's dad/Manny. We did see her kill the guy from her past at the end of last season, and she took care of Jake herself. Now though there does not seem to be a candidate to take care of Baz. And what she really wants is her money back. What cards does she hold that would enable her to do that?

I think Pope will confess to Baz.

IMO, J suspected that that was Smurf's storage unit but did not know for sure. He knew she had a unit in that location, but not which one was hers. Baz does blames Smurf for his wife...and were he and Cath actually married?...as well he should, since Smurf was the instigator. Were those listening devices Smurf planted at Baz's place? If so, when he comes back to pack up Lena's and his things, she will hear his plans. he would be well advised to leave CA immediately, as Catherine should have after she robbed Smurf. At what point will Smurf call in Pope? She may still suspect J...Craig is gone...will Deran help her? stay tuned.

J has been enjoying being a thief for awhile now...after all, he instigated the hold up in the diner with Smurf (probably to ingratiate himself with her) ... At one time it seems he had no alternative but to try to fit in with the Cody's, but we find out this episode that he has had a backup shelter for awhile. i enjoyed seeing Craig's plan work so surprisingly well. Amazing what can happen when he lays off the coke. Even the plan to go to Vegas may not be bad, if he just does not get totally high and wasted. He could launder his money through a casino...as in "Hell or High Water" ... But then, maybe he will just get high and lose it all. I loved his smile when he saw J and Nikki having fun together playing foosball....

Good point about Marco. But J initially made a mistake by making a federal case out of the ring. I wondered about the fuel thing after you brought it up...google it...there is a company advertising jet ski rentals expressly for the purpose of going to Catalina from Long Beach.

Smurf had one of Javi's men shoot Javi...the body Baz digs up in this episode. I thought it was amazing Baz could find the body so quickly...I agree with Dakota Lavender that Baz plans to "pull the trigger" by calling the cops and letting him know about the body. This being TV, I suppose the cops will also easily locate and unearth the body. Maybe Baz did not do a very good job of covering it back up.

He took the gun from the refrigerator in Smurf's garage. He must believe the gun can belinked to Smurf...either because she bought it legally and eventually an ATF trace will turn up her ownership, or because her fingerprints will be on it. She did threaten Javi with it early on this season. In the first season, one of the brothers hypothesized that Carlos might be Baz's son. At the end, when he announces his intention to move to Mexico with her and Carlos, Lucy asks if Lena will come too, and Baz replies that Lena, too, will live with them. Note how long J has been building the stash...it includes the gun Smurf told him to get rid of at the end of season one.

The comparisons with Justified and Breaking Bad are right on. But of course no one can create characters like Elmore Leonard did! Both Breaking Bad and this one tend to view evil from the wrong side out. I guess technically we are cheering for the marshall service in Justified...but the feds find their match in Harlan County.

I agree. This explains his revenge...you stole from me, I 'll steal from you... Seems to me that Pope assumed Baz meant to kill Smurf, not rob her. I wonder if Pope's initial reaction to the theft won't be relief.

I think Lena is Baz's kid. Apparently Catherine and Pope had sex after she was "with" Baz, but I don't see the evidence Pope is the father.

I re-watched the episode. I missed the line at the end, Baz to Lucy: I am going to strip her of everything she cares about. In addition to money, I think Smurf does care about "her boys," including J. Looks as if Deran and Criag are about to self-destruct; J and Pope: tread carefully. Meanwhile, we see what Smurf does to those who cross her. Baz is in real danger here. AS FOR THE PHONES. They know she uses them as trackers. They have probably removed the SIM cards.

I think the next episode of the season is likely to involve a disastrous heist...the boat plan is clearly shaky. The plans seem sketchy, the personnel even more so...interesting Marco thinks selling brown tar heroin superior to thievery...and, if this does work, Craig and Deran are now committed to helping Marco at least one time in the future. And, I agree with Dowel Jones that it seems unlikely they are going to take in that much. Maybe a bunch of Rolex watches, cash, and good quality jewelry, as well as whatever would be in the boat safe/till. Not very much, as noted. Baz seemed like a good guy in Season One, but really he is just a con artist and a thief. He has virtually abandoned Lena to anyone willing to have her, but he did the same with J...assuming he is actually J's father...and Julia. I wonder if Baz is setting J up...did he really need help to break into the storage space? But J went back and saw Baz carrying the satchel (filled with cash) away, so he has a move. I can't figure out what he can do, though, without choosing a side, which up til now he has been able to avoid. Why was Pope at the Orange County building? Amy has now given him hope of a normal life...

Very prescient of you, as it tuns out!

Yes! So glad to hear this! a very well written, well acted series... Deserves more recognition,

Yes, I agree the questions about the brothers prompted him to plant the checks on poor Leon. I just wonder if they spotted Baz and J in the congregation. I keep wondering why the writers saw fit to have J cut his leg...I thought it was for DNA but wonder now if there was another reason. i assume the the cops will just imagine Leon is protecting the other members of his crew.

Nicki is also useful because she cannot keep a secret. She has now told J about Craig's plans for a heist...even if J is skeptical. This is hardly the first time she has functioned as the community telephone. At the same time, she managed to blow her chances to get J back by deferring to Craig. J may have been interested, but even if he still has feelings for her, he realizes she is a manipulator. Such fun that he manages to arouse her jealousy. I wonder how he will feel when Nicki manages to get herself included in Craig's job. Wonder too what questions the lady cop had for Pope when she came back to question him "about his brothers" after they searched the car. Maybe that was just a throw away line, but...nearly everything that is said or done on this show comes back. It is a very well planned show. Someone up-thread suggested Smurf may know Baz will locate her stash...either she will have found the tracking device or she may have anticipated the move. Maybe she even suspects that J has told him about a storage unit and where it is. So maybe when he breaks in, which surely he is planning to do, he will find nothing there. Or worse. Or maybe he will succeed and find the watches she supposedly had destroyed earlier, which would be absolute proof that she is withholding $ from them. Which will then bring about a major confrontation. I am anxious for next week!

I feel sorry for the guy, too. Smurf ordered Pope to kill Cath and afterward he really lashed out against her, demanding that she pay him his full share and not parcel it out bit by bit....which is why he had money to advance to Deran for the bar. The next big question mark for me is...will Pope contrive to deflect Baz away from Smurf? He seems the most attached to her of the sons but also the one with the real motive for wanting her gone...

I think he meant she would need a loan to "float" her over. Maybe Kanan can somehow take the fall forTommy and/or Ghost. Obviously, Ghost is going to have a problem getting that phone to Tommy, since Tommy has secretly left fo Chicage.

Yes, this is possible. Also possible: she will see Patrick and identify him to Baz as Mommy's friend.

I wonder. She can control Pope...and this season he appears well-medicated, calm, and sensible. I was surprised at how quickly the Javi sub-plot came to an end. I had expected it to last all season. Clearly, Javi has to die...in addition to blackmail, he had a revenge motive..but I thought he had a couple more episodes to live. We do see though how she engineers murders. We saw her with Pope; she apparently contacted Javi's buddy; though she claimed that Manny had killed Lou, Pope questions her innocence in all this. He knows too well how she uses people. I wonder how the cops could have connected her to the gun that was buried with the body... How interesting that even in this situation, Smurf claimed not to have the money for the pay-off and made Baz come up with the $200K. We know she has a safe full of cash and watches (remember last season...she only destroyed a few of the wtaches from the jewelry store debacle...) Baz was squirrelling money away last season, too...while Catherine was working as a barmaid to make ends meet... Pope is better able to control Deran and Craig than Baz, and he even seems better able to talk to J. I think Baz better be careful.

So true. This is definitely fiction,

The boys really should send someone out to pour new concrete. Not that they will. A gas leak, especially when the residents begin to smell gas, is pretty scary. Who would question the timely arrival of a repair crew? The owners may blame the utility company for awhile ... Hard to figure why someone would want to dig a hole in the basement. Happily, the basement was unfinished! How did Smurf manage to contact the guy who killed Javi? Of course she would have recognized him from the house video, but how does she contact him? Clearly she has promised him the extra 50k. Baz must have left Lena alone during all that time when he was picking up Nicki and then meeting with the family. No doubt he would do that, but ... even Pope did not leave her alone in the house at night, though I fear had she awakened in the car she would have joined her mother... Baz will figure that Smurf killed Catherine for being in contact with the cops. He is going to know she was in contact with them because of Patrick's interest in her disappearance. Interesting Javi expressed sympathy to Baz for Julia's death.

That dirty looking long hair does nothing for me! And I do not mind long hair on men...but theirs seems dirty. Scratch Deran and Craig...at least on this show. Since I am way too old for J, scratch him, too, though my attitude might be different if I were 17. Every effort is being made here to make him seem young and boyish. Forgetting about the roles they are playing, I Still rate Baz #1 and yes, Pope #2.

I keep changing my mind about J. I think he is torn between wanting a family and needing a place to live and to belong, hating Smurf and fearing his uncles, wanting to be successful and respected ...in school, in the "family", in life. He knows he has to be alert and self-contained. I think his internal conflict makes the show powerful. Now, in addition to J, we see Deran struggling to free himself from his family. If he has managed to walk away from Smurf, at least for the time being, we see him beset on every side with pressures from Craig, from the need to conform to the law to maintain his bar, and now, from the protection racket. Another powerful internal and external conflict. Craig is struggling to get back into the family, Baz is coping with a new problem with the cop, Pope is trying to live with his conscience, create a real relationship against family wisdom, and Smurf is confronting her past. She now has to deal with Javi. Everyone here has a compelling problem.