S03.E10: Comeuppance

[mledawn]

Quote

Mike's plan for the warring factions in Kingstown hits turbulence.

 

This description couldn't be more vague

[AnimeMania]

(Season Finale)

[Linderhill]

intense episode.  I hope we aren't left hanging after that finale.  I was trying to remember if we ever learned why Mike went to jail.  I think that was the most mentions of Mariam in the entire series.

[Orbert]

That felt like a series finale.  Closure on Robert, Milo, Konstantin, Iris, and Kareem.  And Mike ends up back at the cabin, which we haven't seen since Season 1. 

Looks like Evelyn is going to pursue both Ian and Kyle, but Mike's voiceover mentioned prison and what it does to you, etc., while we looked at Kyle sitting in the back of a squad car.  No one here is completely clean, but Ian and Kyle both arguably did the right thing for the wrong reasons, or the wrong thing for the right reasons, or something, so part of their tragedy will be going to prison even if they're both "good guys" in the bigger picture.

The Russian invasion was thwarted, and Kingstown can go back to just being run by Mike and Bunny, on their respective sides of the law, with that huge grey area in between.

[mledawn]

5 hours ago, Orbert said:

That felt like a series finale.  Closure on Robert, Milo, Konstantin, Iris, and Kareem.  And Mike ends up back at the cabin, which we haven't seen since Season 1. 

But is there closure on Robert - he was shot in the chest but the vest caught it, then he was shot in the neck but didn't Evelyn say he'd survive? Kyle is charged with attempted murder. Kyle, how tf do you miss from there?! If Evelyn wants Robert so badly, she's going to want to listen to what Kyle has to say...if he says why he did what he did, and the witnesses corroborate. I mean, the people in the car, not the SWAT guys - I assume the SWAT guys would back Robert.

Evelyn cornering Ian was such a stretch, does it even make sense that she'd be looking into Charlie's tours? Ian received a commendation for helping bring closure to families of Charlie's victims. It seemed out of left field to dig that up.

So Bunny is in control now, but the AB is not completely out of the picture. Speaking of the AB, I was sad that Kareem went out the way he did but mostly because I really appreciate Michael Beach as an actor. It made sense in the context of the show though.

Iris, good riddance. Sorry Emma but that storyline was well past due. I am SO GLAD they didn't have Mike and Iris hook up at any point. Thank goodness for small miracles.

If there is a S4, I'm interested in how they will fill the holes of these characters that have left. I'm worried for Ian, and I'm worried for Kyle. I did like how the voiceover was Mike speaking to the mother whose actions weren't far off from Kyle's. I'm also worried for Evelyn as she goes after Ian and Kyle. I really like her character and her relationship with Mike.

If there is a S4, I'll watch.

[dwmarch]

I know Ian felt the need to unburden himself about the whole Charlie situation but if two people know a secret, it is safe so long as one of those people is dead which is the reason you shot Charlie in the first place! Now the circle has become exponentially larger and 2/3rds of the newcomers are cops!

32 minutes ago, mledawn said:

Evelyn cornering Ian was such a stretch, does it even make sense that she'd be looking into Charlie's tours?

Based on last episode, I think it is possible Charlie may have tipped Evelyn off himself.

I'm glad Milo is gone. I was just starting to like Konstantin but I won't miss him all that much. I guess Kingstown must be where the Russians send all their screwups.

I don't think we got any kind of resolution on Callahan. I wonder if Kareem's suicide-by-inmates was meant to disrupt the AB faction in the prison. I assume if they killed the warden they'd get sent elsewhere.

Looks like Kyle is really in for it. Yes Robert is a little too casual with tossing lead around. Yes he will murder any suspect who resists. But in this episode, in the middle of a big gunfight, Robert called out a warning to the guy in the car several times. I feel like any of the other cops, including Kyle before he became a dad, would have shot this dude after telling him for the third time to put the fucking gun down. It was a literal battle on a packed bridge, not the best time for Kyle to be trying to micromanage his boss.

If we get a season four we should be in for some interesting times. Robert wants to kill Evelyn while she wants to bring Robert down and is willing to take Ian down in the process. Mike has his personal relationship with Evelyn but also wants to protect his crew. Bunny might be riding high after the bridge battle but might also be weak on account of losing a bunch of soldiers. Callahan is still out there somewhere and is probably super pissed off. Kareem is dead so there will be a power vacuum at the prison. The Russians are down and out for now but since Iris is gone, a Russian can come in who won't find himself bogged down by her. And we can assume that Kyle is now a cop in jail, which is not going to be a fun place for him. What a glorious mess this is going to be!

[Orbert]

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more threads are still left hanging out there.  I forgot that Robert was still alive; for some reason I thought Kyle had taken him out, and even after that line about his vest catching it, I guess the idea that Robert was finally gone stuck in my head.  I've seen elsewhere that supposedly a Season 4 is going to happen.  So we'll see.

[Dowel Jones]

Well, I guess those bus passengers are going to have a bit more than a 15 minute break.

I thought the police killed Bunny at the end of the battle.  Didn't he come out with his hands up, and someone shot him in his chest?  I also thought Mike was going to eat a bullet up there at the cabin and put an end to the series.

Kareem chose the only real path open to him.  At least this way his widow gets a settlement from the state because of a line of duty death.

When Konstantine and Iris first enter Milo's boat, the two security guys frisk them and then leave by the stairs.  Shortly afterward, two shots and a body hits the deck.  Who killed who, and why?

Hell of an episode.

[Orbert]

I don't think that that was Bunny who got shot with his hands up.  Bunny knew that the whole episode on the bridge was "fake" and would know to stay well away from it all.

That was Konstantin's boat.  Konstantin and Iris were coming back there from something, and Milo was already aboard, with his own guys.  It was a show of strength, announcing who was in charge.  I too was confused by the two shots and a thump, though.  Presumably one of them shot the other, but the only way that makes sense is that one of them was loyal to Milo and the other was not, and Milo knew it.  It was weird.

[mledawn]

Did we ever find out what Iris told Ian in the interview room at the police station?

[Orbert]

I don't think so.  She made Ian promise to never tell Mike, and as far as we've seen, he kept that promise.

It's either going to be one of those things that seemed important but never comes up again, or if/when we get a Season 4 and Mike is all sad about Iris, Ian shares the information with him to somehow make him feel better.  It could work, if Ian figures that he can share it, now that she's dead, but I have no idea what it could be and how it could have that effect on Mike.

[KittyQ]

I wasn't sure whether Iris killed herself knowingly - taking an overdose or some toxic pills, or if someone tampered with her pills and she was killed "remotely". 

It seems very odd to decide to kill yourself on a bus. Of course, it is extremely disrespectful of everyone else - the other passengers (think of anyone who might have been sitting near her), the bus driver, the future passengers for the next leg of the trip, the bus company, etc. but if you're already involved in activities that at minimum are "disrespectful" anyway, perhaps inconveniencing other people doesn't factor into your decision. 

[Ottis]

Some good, some bad, some musings:

- I never found Milo to be particularly threatening, so his return was a letdown (I had hoped for a better, hidden bad guy). But was the surprise here that Mike had been working with Milo all along, and splitting profits? That whole discussion in the boat had me scratching my head, because my recollection is that Milo was a shadowy, mystery figure for a long time in earlier seasons and a threat to Mike and the status quo. So was this new info, that he and Mike were working together?

- If so, maybe it played a role in Iris offing herself. She learned even her white knight was dirty and gave up. Or maybe she was just sad at being sent away, but if it is only the latter, that's weak.

- Typically voiceovers are considered a tool for the simple, but I enjoyed them (mostly). They made it more clear what Mike was wrestling with, which I think was a big weakness in the first two seasons (where he was a "fixer" and apparently bad at it). I did like that Mike seemed to be owning being a fixer this season, vs. flailing.

- Still lots of inconsistencies. For example, Mike says there is nothing good in that town (or that Kyle is the only good thing, for some reason), and then also gets mad that "outsiders" come in and mess it up. If it's a bad place, what difference does it make ... except to your wallet?

- Did not miss Mirium, though her name was said 3 million times.

- So Bunny's team *did* carry out the attack in the prison, and rookie guard thought about one of the attackers being white as a red herring to focus the investigation on the Russians? Did he tell anyone except the warden? Did the warden tell anyone? I guess that undermines all of the set up that the rookie was principled. 

- I struggle differentiating between plot events that are a surprise to Mike and plot events that they put in motion. That makes it hard to figure out what's going on. For example, Mike set up an ambush of the Russians by Bunny's men, but the fight actually broke out on a bridge, with many innocents. So either the planning was poor or, what? It was chance? 

This show is so well done. And getting better. I wonder if it is over?

Edited October 12 by Ottis

[Ottis]

On 8/9/2024 at 2:31 PM, KittyQ said:

It seems very odd to decide to kill yourself on a bus. Of course, it is extremely disrespectful of everyone else - the other passengers (think of anyone who might have been sitting near her), the bus driver, the future passengers for the next leg of the trip, the bus company, etc. but if you're already involved in activities that at minimum are "disrespectful" anyway, perhaps inconveniencing other people doesn't factor into your decision. 

This is maybe the funniest post I have read in these forums. How rude of Iris!

[dwmarch]

3 hours ago, Ottis said:

If so, maybe it played a role in Iris offing herself. She learned even her white knight was dirty and gave up. Or maybe she was just sad at being sent away, but if it is only the latter, that's weak.

Per Hugh Dillon (series co-creator who also plays Ian), Iris accidentally OD'd:

https://screenrant.com/mayor-of-kingstown-season-3-iris-death-overdose-accident-confirmed/

3 hours ago, Ottis said:

So was this new info, that he and Mike were working together?

They weren't working together, remember Milo tried to kill Mike at his mother's funeral. But they were working towards a common goal and they both have an attachment to Iris. I think Milo just recognizes that he can't kill Mike and Mike is probably more useful to him as an ally than as an enemy. But then he had to go and talk shit about Mike's mom and that was it for him.

3 hours ago, Ottis said:

So Bunny's team *did* carry out the attack in the prison, and rookie guard thought about one of the attackers being white as a red herring to focus the investigation on the Russians? Did he tell anyone except the warden? Did the warden tell anyone? I guess that undermines all of the set up that the rookie was principled.

The rookie prison guard was Bunny's agent all along and was only pretending to be Mr. Integrity. Yes, he intentionally lied about the identity of the prison attackers to make it look like it was the Russians. This was believable because Bunny's crew never had access to that kind of hardware (grenades and high-powered sniper rifles) but we the audience knew Bunny had a better arsenal than was generally known. Kareem had the rookie guard all figured out by the end which is why he told him Bunny wasn't his friend. Now that Kareem is gone we may see more of this in a future season although they could just as easily say the rookie moved on because his cover was blown or because Bunny lost too many soldiers in the bridge battle.

3 hours ago, Ottis said:

So either the planning was poor or, what? It was chance?

I'd say six of one, half a dozen of the other. I've seen this come up on a different Taylor Sheridan show as well (Lioness). You plan for things to go smoothly but the enemy gets a vote too and sometimes they do the unexpected. See also Callahan escaping assassination in the previous episode because he had a feeling Mike was stringing him along.

[Ottis]

6 hours ago, dwmarch said:

Per Hugh Dillon (series co-creator who also plays Ian), Iris accidentally OD'd:

First - thanks for all your thoughtful responses dwmarch. Good stuff.

On this point about the accidental OD, IMO that's poor writing. Clearly there was no obvious reason to believe it was accidental, which is why a number of people were speculating what happened. So having it be accidental is meaningless, vs. it being something that came from sadness over leaving Mike, for instance. I guess Iris got sloppy? It's just random.

6 hours ago, dwmarch said:

They weren't working together, remember Milo tried to kill Mike at his mother's funeral. But they were working towards a common goal and they both have an attachment to Iris.

I meant were they working together in season one, when we first met Milo. My recollection was he was a mostly unseen threat for much of the season, giving orders but not being involved personally, and then we met him near the end of season one. But what I remember was that he was always Mike's enemy then, that Milo's goal was to take over, period. SO then to have him return at the end of season three and want to be partners seemed abrupt. It's not like Mike has been so effective in his "job" that Milo would think Mike was now needed. IMO, anyway. Note: I haven't watched season one since it first aired, so I conceded my may not remember it well.

6 hours ago, dwmarch said:

This was believable because Bunny's crew never had access to that kind of hardware (grenades and high-powered sniper rifles) but we the audience knew Bunny had a better arsenal than was generally known.

Didn't the cops know, too? Mike knew and had told Ian. Later they raided the warehouse. I need to watch the sequence again but I believe at least a few cops knew Bunny had that kind of arsenal before the grenade attack (because I kept thinking, guys, Mike just saw all the military weapons and told you about them, that means grenades).

I think there's enough for a season four, but I would like to see even more definition on Mike's "mayor" role and him coming to terms with himself.

[mledawn]

3 hours ago, Ottis said:

On this point about the accidental OD, IMO that's poor writing. Clearly there was no obvious reason to believe it was accidental, which is why a number of people were speculating what happened. So having it be accidental is meaningless, vs. it being something that came from sadness over leaving Mike, for instance. I guess Iris got sloppy? It's just random.

I think the poor writing is how ineffectively that was shown in the episode - as evidenced by no one thinking an overdose is what actually happened. Having her die of an overdose in itself isn't poor imo. Dillon explains why it was written that way - basically shit happens. The life of an addict is something he knows about, and he was quite lucky to survive that period of his life. Iris lived a life of all sorts risky behaviour, and made all sorts of bad decisions - that was enough. Selfishly, she was also easily my least favourite so I am happy to see the end of that character regardless. I wish we knew what Ian discovered about her, though. That was an irritating dropped storyline.

Edited October 13 by mledawn
Lazy and poor are two different words.