S02.E05: Kill Box

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

In the wake of the tent city transfer, Mike finds himself in a race to locate Bunny. Kareem surveys the new power structure, and later gets some unsettling news. Kyle contemplates his next move. Milo looks to fix Joseph's mistake.

Dropping Sunday, February 12, 2023.

[dwmarch]

Well, I have to say that as much as I like this show and Jeremy Renner's performance, this season is dragging ass so far. Part three of "everyone is unhappy and no one can do anything about it". I guess what we are seeing here is the power paradigm shifting away from Mike but thus far nothing interesting is replacing it.

I will take a moment to appreciate that the brutality has been toned down a bit from last season. Skinny Pete's wife just gets jumped by the Russian mooks and then found dead and fortunately we don't dwell on her long enough to see exactly what they did to her.

Having said that, one problem I am running into here is that we don't have a real plot within the prison other than Bunny wants to leave so there's no impact to various other prisoners getting killed. We got to see two prison murders but not why this is happening. Is there a new player about to emerge? One of the prisoners said the black gangs had united (well he said "we're the All Blacks now" so maybe they are starting a rugby team). The only other time I have seen that happen on a TV show (The Shield), it was bad news.

The one prison plotline that I thought was an interesting contrast was Ian talking to that serial killer. That guy gets a veggie burger (no onions) and a drink, cops will come from other states to hear what he has to say and he is told he's doing a good job (in helping the police recover the various parts of one of his many victims). What's the difference with this guy? Well, he's white.

We saw various characters not happy to discover that Milo escaped. They still haven't thought of checking out that church to see if he's hanging out right inside the front door. There's even street parking! No guards, nobody doing church stuff either. Just Milo, sitting around waiting for his least competent goon to bring him 14 million dollars. Well, somebody has it now and so begins the game of hot potato. I wonder if Mike took it himself. He's got the connections to be able to call the one guy who works at the Kingstown PD lockup and say "open the door for me and then go away for a while" and I can't say they've established that the same would be true for Milo.

There was one bit that I liked but it was a very understated moment. When Mike goes to visit Bunny's cousin she grills him on the relationship between the two and Mike declines to answer. I like the hint at a deep history between them and I'd be curious to hear more or see a flashback to what brought them together in the first place. I also thought it was funny that Bunny's cousin wrote Mike off so easily. Did you not hear about the time he went over to Bunny's place and threw a grenade at him to get his attention? Did you not hear about the time the Peckerwoods messed with Mike's gal and were all found dead the same day? Maybe this is some nuance of gangsta shit where the guy who doesn't brag is the one you should be afraid of but the lady was acting like she had never heard of Mike before. Then again, I guess her view is tinted by the fact that she's only ever seen Mike with his thumb up his ass.

 

[mledawn]

After last week's filler episode, this one was much better. Some plot advancement in most areas - aside from the main one of "Bunny and the other leaders are stuck in prison". 

I absolutely did not need to see that jumper's head open and his brains all over the place. Ugh

Kyle to Mike is all of us, asking what the big deal is with Milo. Let him take his money and GO. He "broke" Iris. Well, I'm sure his list of broken things is quite long, tbh. It's getting longer.

I thought Barton Street in Hamilton was a good shitty location, but this section of Pittsburgh is putting on a clinic. The area is Run Down.

Bunny's cousin Rhonda alludes to Mike being good looking twice. Really!? Rhonda herself is a rocket, let's not get carried away Jeremy Renner. Rhonda is also all of us wondering why Bunny and Mike are tight.

The exchange between the guard Carney and Michael Beach's Kareem was great. We had all put the beating of the rapists behind us but here is the fallout.

We see that the white guards and prisoners are in alliance and that is fucking with Mike's relationship/alliance/connection with Bunny. Who is that tall white guard aligned with outside? The leader of the white gang knows stuff is going on in the background, so it makes you wonder what is going on with the tall guard. Maybe the state police or the feds?

Kenny Johnson's character is an interesting sidebar from the rest of this. After Charlie's reveal that the guy was in several places, he takes a moment and then starts eating his veggie burger. Ian is not shown eating. Ha.

[Linderhill]

a big advantage this episode had was no Iris.  I can see things are escalating, we're due yet another explosion of violence.

[Orbert]

Who are "the three"?  That conversation between Carney and Kareem was good but I didn't really follow it.

A lot of Mike trying to fix things, nothing getting fixed, pieces moving around, Milo being scary for no known reason, Joseph killing people before getting the information he's supposed to be getting...

At least there was no Iris and no Mariam to bring things down even further.  After last week, I expected things to really hit the fan.  Instead, it's more of the same.

[dwmarch]

6 minutes ago, Orbert said:

Who are "the three"?  That conversation between Carney and Kareem was good but I didn't really follow it.

Kareem put the beat down on three inmates who violated him during the riot. One of them has since died from the injuries sustained in that beating and Carney is worried that there will be blowback because there were plenty of witnesses.

[Orbert]

Ah, thank you!

[Ottis]

Mike tells Bunny’s cousin that when he does a thing, it gets done. Why exactly should she believe him? I don’t believe him. Nothing we see supports his assertion. Why waste our time with that conversation?

In a twisted way, it’s amusing to see how many things Mike can’t do anything about. Kyle might actually be smarter than Mike. Give Milo his money, move on. 

 

[hookedontv]

A couple thoughts in no particular order:

1. It was great to have an Iris-free episode. She just drags the show down.

2.  I very oddly feel sorry for Bunny. 

3. I find it hilarious that Milo is just hanging out, in the town where he was imprisoned, without any concern of being found out.

4. I too would like to know Mike & Bunny's backstory. 

[Orbert]

We know Mike did time in prison.  My guess is that Mike saved Bunny's life when it would've been easier to not cross racial lines and let him die.  During some kind of riot or uprising or something.  Bunny never forgot that.  He might say that they're not friends, and maybe they're not, but there's a bond there.

[jabRI]

On 2/14/2023 at 4:26 PM, hookedontv said:

It was great to have an Iris-free episode. She just drags the show down.

Iris is ok until she starts talking, then her acting skills go out the window.  Not being flippant, I actually mean that she can dress and move the character believably, but as soon as she opens her mouth, all credibility files out the window.  Not sure how else to explain what I mean, just a feeling.

On 2/12/2023 at 10:59 AM, mledawn said:

Kyle to Mike is all of us, asking what the big deal is with Milo.

I've watched every episode, and I feel like they need to do a major one episode recap of who all these people are.  Like skinny pete, milo, etc.  Getting more confused as time goes on.

[CrystalBlue]

6 hours ago, jabRI said:

Iris is ok until she starts talking, then her acting skills go out the window.  Not being flippant, I actually mean that she can dress and move the character believably, but as soon as she opens her mouth, all credibility files out the window.  Not sure how else to explain what I mean, just a feeling.

The actress is British and does a horrible American accent.

[KittyQ]

On 2/13/2023 at 7:47 AM, dwmarch said:

One of them has since died from the injuries sustained in that beating and Carney is worried that there will be blowback because there were plenty of witnesses.

I thought that was the intention - they put up some kind of barrier and had a trench dug behind the prisoners who were going to be attacked. My impression was that it was meant to be an execution from the get-go. Now, it seems that this was just supposed to be some kind of beating with non-lethal consequences. That makes little sense, given the very purposeful steps that were taken. Hard to claim that severe injuries were unintentional, with all that planning.