‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Season 3 Episode 8 Recap

Mayor of Kingstown

Captain of the Shit Out of Luck

Season 3

Episode 8

Editor’s Rating

3 stars

***

Photo: Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+

Was I wrong about the mayor? Last week I wrote that Mike McLusky never seems to have a well-thought-out plan for dealing with Kingstown’s violent crime problem or its near-daily crises — at least not beyond telling all his contacts to sit tight while he cobbles together a quick fix. But in this week’s episode, Mike comes across as … competent? In control? Maybe even a few steps ahead of his enemies? Am I watching the right show?

The colorfully titled “Captain of the Shit Out of Luck” opens with another “good lord, what now?” emergency that defines life in Kingstown. A helmeted man on a motorcycle throws grenades over a prison wall, wounding several Aryans on a work unit. Then a sniper across the facility fires on guards to prevent them from taking down the biker. (This is probably not the best week for a TV show to air an episode featuring a sniper. But then again, weeks are few and far between these days.)

Three prisoners and a CO are killed. One of the Aryans gets his face blown off. (It’s disgusting!) Merle Callahan is hospitalized…and furious.

The attack raises two questions: (1) Who is responsible? (2) Can Mike turn this situation to his advantage? Normally, the answer to the second question would be, “He could, but he won’t.” But this week? Something seems to be boiling in Mike’s mind.

First, Mike visits Merle, and reassures the racist creep that he’s on his side by saying, “I wanted to be the first face you saw.” Merle then promptly reminds us what a horrible person he is by complaining that the first face he saw was an “immigrant” cop… who is actually a brown-skinned, Kingstown-born man. Merle tries to blame Mike for what happened, saying that he didn’t keep his promise to “hit Bunny Washington.” Now he wants more than just more police pressure on the Crips. Merle wants everyone dead.

At first glance, it seems like Mike’s response to this is simply a variation on his usual “stay calm and trust me” approach. He does indeed tell Merle that he’ll “take care” of Bunny. But … Mike also suggests to Merle that the real problems for the Aryans may lie with the Russians, who are more likely than the Crips to have access to military-grade weapons like grenades and high-powered rifles. Of course, Mike secretly knows that Bunny do have that kind of firepower. (We also saw that the sniper was black.) But it’s easy to convince a bigot like Merle that the white guys are better organized and better armed.

Then Mike gets a chance. Since the prison raid disrupted the Aryan drug trade, a couple of Merle’s agents from the outside pay Konstantin an unscheduled visit to restock. Unfortunately, they arrive just as Konstantin is reeling from the deaths of the Eastern European immigrant teens in last week’s episode, wondering who could be responsible. Since the Crips don’t traffic women, they don’t seem like likely candidates. But what about these rude Aryans who’ve jumped on his yacht and are demanding dope?

So Konstantin unceremoniously murders one of the visitors, letting the other live to send a message back to Merle, who lies so sick and in pain in his hospital bed that he can’t think straight. “Time to set that bastard’s river on fire,” he growls at a henchman.

Does Mike really plan All this? Or was he just lucky? There is some evidence that he actually orchestrated the feud between the Russians and the Aryans, perhaps to protect Bunny (even if Bunny doesn’t know it). He tips off Ferguson and the KPD about the Crips’ weapons cache, but asks for a warning before they strike, which ultimately results in a SWAT raid on what turns out to be an empty warehouse. Ferguson is miffed that the Crips outsmarted the police, but Mike insists that all that matters is that the gang gets the message that the police could be Hurt them.

And then Mike smiles mysteriously and—to Ferguson—infuriatingly. Roll credits.

Just like the last few Mayor of Kingstown episodes, this one is disappointingly low on action. After an explosive opening, we immediately switch to more scenes of talking and intrigue. But at least the intrigue seems more purposeful and fruitful this time around.

And as the gang wars flare up, an intriguing new idea keeps emerging: Could these people just… leave Kingstown?

This is an offer made directly to Iris, as Konstantin attempts to assuage some of his guilt over how she’s been treated by the Russians over the years. He wants to give her a new identity and a fully funded new life somewhere else. She resists, however, telling Mike – who encourages her to accept the deal – that “there are always strings attached” and “this isn’t done yet.” Bunny has better luck when she tells Raphael’s son that he and his mother need to move somewhere safer… though even those two seem oddly reluctant to go.

Why don’t the Kingstowners run? In one of the two funniest throwaway lines of this episode (I’ll list the others below), Ferguson gets a call from Mike while he’s in the middle of scratching off a lottery ticket at a gas station, and he says, “I’m about to become a mega fucking millionaire here.” Of course, Ferguson doesn’t win a million dollars. But what if he did? How much of a windfall would it be for any of these people to take the money and run? Or do they all know in their bones that this is just not possible for crooks like them?

• In last week’s review, I speculated that Konstantin’s chief lackey Roman (Mark Ivanir) might be involved in the destruction of the Russian trafficking bus. I’m still keeping an eye on Roman, given how eager he is this week to drive the Aryans away from his boss so he can do business with them himself, in secret. There’s something going on there.

• Warden Kareem Moore misses the trouble at Kingstown Prison because he’s having coffee with his wife so they can talk about the expensive psychotherapy their daughter will need. In Kareem’s absence, he relies heavily on his seemingly loyal guard Kevin, who is secretly working for Bunny. But Kevin begins to question this arrangement, especially after Bunny convinces him to help with the attack on the prison. Kevin may be thinking about becoming a truly conscientious prison employee.

• Another example of Mike on a roll this week: When Tracy comes to him to tell him about William Breen (Matthew Del Negro), who got physical with her last episode and warned her to drop her investigation into inmates being raped by guards, Mike confronts Breen outside a bar and beats him to a pulp until he agrees to a transfer out of the women’s prison. Maybe there are consequences for the McLuskys crossing the line after all!

• Kyle finally confronts Sawyer about how out of control his boss has been lately, after Sawyer is enraged by the fruitless raid on Bunny’s armory. Kyle is growing into someone who strives to be brave, honest and responsible — as evidenced in a sweet scene where he helps the owner of the McLuskys’ favorite restaurant close early so she can visit her mother.

• The other The funniest line of dialogue this week also comes from Ferguson, who becomes irritated when Mike calls him away from the Kingstown Prison crime scene. “Mikey, I’m a fucking cop here,” he growls. One of the subtle themes this season — seen from Ferguson, Kevin, Tracy and even Kyle — is the growing number of people in Kingstown who just want to do their damn jobs without having to answer to any of the city’s many criminal agents.