S05.E12: Loose Ends

[CheshireCat]

Quote

The Codys resolve unfinished business and plan their biggest heist ever without Smurf

Air date: Sep 26, 2021

[Witchz]

Ha I knew Pete did not flush the coke!! And I know they arent dont with him either 

[Marley]

Why are they doing this impossible job? They have money it seems so stupid to risk everything.

Craig is such a loser.

Young Smurf blah same as always. The actress is not pulling off this role. I do not see a badass Crime boss. It’s annoying.

This show sucks without Smurf. The season has no point to it. What was even the whole thing with Pam at the beginning. Another huge waste of time. 

Pope and J are kind of interesting. Wish they would spend more time on that.

[Crashcourse]

That greedy crooked cop is going to try and screw the Codys and they know it, so I wonder if they'll get rid of him.

It's really too bad that someone didn't call CPS on young Smurf because I'm pretty sure she would've lost custody and the children would have been better off living in foster care.  

[Dowel Jones]

I'm not sure anyone outside her little band of thugs and ne'er do wells even knows she has kids.

[iMonrey]

This is another episode that makes me think the writers are way more interested in writing the flashbacks than the present day story. They have not done one damn thing with J all season long. He ran into an old group of friends from school early on in the season, they told him Nikki married some military dude and lives on a base somewhere. And that? Is literally the closest thing J's had to a storyline. 

Craig has gotten the most material with Ren and his spiral down the coke hole, and Pope had that sojourn early on. I guess Daren had the feds on his back, but what really happened this episode? They paid off the crooked cop and told him to get lost. J and Daren scoped out the port. Pope threatened Pete's guy and made him sell him his car for some reason I can't figure out. That's about it.

Now we're being promised a "shocking" season finale. Will they have the balls to kill off another major character? Maybe it will be J since they don't seem to know what to do with him anymore. He really was a key figure when Smurf was alive because she used him to play off against her sons and vice versa. Now he just has no purpose.

[Marley]

50 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

This is another episode that makes me think the writers are way more interested in writing the flashbacks than the present day story. They have not done one damn thing with J all season long. He ran into an old group of friends from school early on in the season, they told him Nikki married some military dude and lives on a base somewhere. And that? Is literally the closest thing J's had to a storyline. 

Craig has gotten the most material with Ren and his spiral down the coke hole, and Pope had that sojourn early on. I guess Daren had the feds on his back, but what really happened this episode? They paid off the crooked cop and told him to get lost. J and Daren scoped out the port. Pope threatened Pete's guy and made him sell him his car for some reason I can't figure out. That's about it.

Now we're being promised a "shocking" season finale. Will they have the balls to kill off another major character? Maybe it will be J since they don't seem to know what to do with him anymore. He really was a key figure when Smurf was alive because she used him to play off against her sons and vice versa. Now he just has no purpose.

It’s too bad too because if they would write better and give more time to J and Pope I feel like it could be really good.

Instead we get Young Smurf threatening Baz’s mom which was pathetic and somehow she’s just stepping in to take over. Like it would happen like that I’m sure. All the other criminals would just bow down to this wannabe badass with 2 morons as sidekicks. Sure lol.

[TooMuchRealityTV]

Not a good episode, in a season that was mostly not good. This show really, really misses Ellen Barkin.

So, Pete did not flush the coke. He knows that Pope knows, because of the car thing (I assume taking the car is payback. Pete would know that.) So the boys now have two ticking time bombs, Pete and the Cop. Just because the cop can't bring up the murder without implicating himself doesn't actually mean he can't cause trouble. Let's see what happens when Pope, a felon (and is he still on parole?), has so much a parking ticket. What are the chances that Pope does not do what Pope does? And we all know what Pope does. The only real question is does he take out one or both of them.

I do enjoy J and Pope together. It's an interesting dynamic. After seeing next week's preview I do wonder if the J/Pope scenes in the last few episodes are trying to show J bonded to someone. That way if they kill him off it will feel like a real loss to the boys in a personal way. And not just a loss to their crime partnership.

They really don't need to do this heist. It's a dumb idea. It's a really tough job. J is smart, but lacks the experience of Baz or Smurf. Craig is day-to-day as far as how reliable he is. This is going to go south. I suspect we will get a season ender cliffhanger where we won't know if everyone survives, or if someone gets caught.

Once again, the Young Smurf scenes don't tie in at all to the main play and take screen time away from the main plots.

[Artsda]

J wanting to get one of the businesses is smart, he's smarter than Deran and Deran could learn. He wanted to take over but he doesn't understand how to do things like J. I guess Pope saying he's like Baz is compliment of taking after him. 

Craig's just a mess.

[Crashcourse]

The only thing to me that makes sense for the young Smurf flashbacks is to show how and why Pope and Julia got so messed up.   I feel sad whenever I see them.

[iMonrey]

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Let's see what happens when Pope, a felon (and is he still on parole?),

I don't think he was ever on parole, they have never mentioned him having a parole officer or having to check in or anything like that. I think he simply served out his sentence when he was released from prison in the pilot episode.

I like the attention to character detail with Pope being all OCD with the cleaning in this episode, but I'm inclined to attribute that to Shawn Hatosy rather than the writing, given how crappy it's been of late.

[arachne]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Pope threatened Pete's guy and made him sell him his car for some reason I can't figure out.

The brothers told Pope he needed his own car. He got one in the most expedient way he knew. And as an added bonus, this car contained the allegedly "flushed" cocaine. 

[TooMuchRealityTV]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I don't think he was ever on parole, they have never mentioned him having a parole officer or having to check in or anything like that. I think he simply served out his sentence when he was released from prison in the pilot episode.

In season 1 shortly after Pope leaves lockup, Smurf starts trying to get Pope on meds. She tries to drug his food. In episode 6 he gets arrested because he failed a drug test. So he was on parole. I'm not sure his parole ever comes up again, so maybe the show dropped it.

From an Entertainment Weekly recap of the episode.

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The episode also starts with a less fun trip than the one Baz and Paul are having: Smurf has to pick up Pope from prison because he got busted failing a drug test. Pope is livid, saying he didn’t do it, but that doesn’t matter to his parole officer. Smurf knows what the real deal is though. Pope was likely busted because of what she was putting into his food without him knowing.

https://ew.com/recap/animal-kingdom-season-1-episode-6/

[MaggieG]

I feel like the flashbacks would be somewhat better if they were more condensed. At this point we met Baz's mom how many episodes ago and we still don't know when he goes to live with Smurf. And Smurf still isn't pregnant with Craig. They could easily condense the timeline, jump ahead a bit, show her with all the kids when they were younger.

Deran and J were cute having breakfast together. Craig is a complete mess but maybe there is some slight hope for him since he sent his coke dealer away.

[Auntie Anxiety]

If all the cocaine was in the trunk of Pope’s new car, why couldn’t they just sell that instead of going with the ill-advised plan to rob a container at the port? It makes no sense. Like everything else this season, I guess.🤷‍♀️

[Dowel Jones]

If I were staging this robbery, I would pony up some freight papers for that container, steal a semi, and haul that thing right out the front door.  Plunder it somewhere else and walk away.  Or park it in front of Pete's place with the cocaine inside.

[chick binewski]

On 9/27/2021 at 1:27 AM, Witchz said:

Ha I knew Pete did not flush the coke!! 

It did seem really odd how J bought that story earlier this season. Also, I get the mechanic isn't the brains of the operation - but wouldn't it make more sense for him to let Pope go, then tell Pete about the coke?

On 9/27/2021 at 11:55 AM, iMonrey said:

This is another episode that makes me think the writers are way more interested in writing the flashbacks than the present day story. They have not done one damn thing with J all season long. He ran into an old group of friends from school early on in the season, they told him Nikki married some military dude and lives on a base somewhere. And that? Is literally the closest thing J's had to a storyline. 

Craig has gotten the most material with Ren and his spiral down the coke hole, and Pope had that sojourn early on. I guess Daren had the feds on his back, but what really happened this episode? They paid off the crooked cop and told him to get lost. J and Daren scoped out the port. Pope threatened Pete's guy and made him sell him his car for some reason I can't figure out. That's about it.

I actually have liked the past couple of episodes but yeah - the show seems overly invested in flashbacks that don't reveal a lot. Three of the sons haven't even joined Barbie's brood yet. Not to give a total pass to the writers but I do think (much like Mayans MC) the pandemic is driving some plot decisions - Craig shutting everyone out to spiral, Pope's walkabout, Deran's empty bar. 

But I have no idea why they haven't given J anything to do but pout and sign papers. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

That dirty cop was begging to be killed. It just a question of which Cody will do it.

Craig trying to go cold turkey is going to be as big of a distraction as still doing the drugs was. Now he'll be constantly struggling not to use.

Of course Pete never flushed the coke. Don't know why J was so shocked. You'd think he'd never been lied to before.

Frankie's still acting suspicious to me. I think she's spying on the Codys via Craig.

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If all the cocaine was in the trunk of Pope’s new car

I don't think it was all the coke. Some of it has probably already been sold. The remainder has probably been divvied out among several people and stash places.

[heisenberg]

8 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Craig trying to go cold turkey is going to be as big of a distraction as still doing the drugs was. Now he'll be constantly struggling not to use.

He might do it from jail in the next season.  I am speculating, I have no idea.🙂

[FozzyBear]

On 9/27/2021 at 1:23 PM, Crashcourse said:

The only thing to me that makes sense for the young Smurf flashbacks is to show how and why Pope and Julia got so messed up.   I feel sad whenever I see them.

I wish they would jump a couple of years ahead. I feel like we’ve gotten all we’re going to get out of 1980s Animal Kingdom. Smurf is honing her criminal skills. Yada, yada, yada, fishcakes. It just keeps going. I feel like I’ve seen every day of whatever year we’re supposed to be in.  I would love to jump to 1990s Animal Kingdom when Smurf is a young kingpin and we can explore whatever the hell went down with Julia, Pope, and Baz as teenagers that leads to Julia leaving the family.

[topanga]

On 6/3/2022 at 8:25 PM, FozzyBear said:

I wish they would jump a couple of years ahead. I feel like we’ve gotten all we’re going to get out of 1980s Animal Kingdom. Smurf is honing her criminal skills. Yada, yada, yada, fishcakes. It just keeps going. I feel like I’ve seen every day of whatever year we’re supposed to be in.  I would love to jump to 1990s Animal Kingdom when Smurf is a young kingpin and we can explore whatever the hell went down with Julia, Pope, and Baz as teenagers that leads to Julia leaving the family.

Spoiler

FozzyBear, you're psychic. Or maybe you should be a TV writer!