The Hand You’re Dealt – Episode 4 begins with Del Harris (Jeff Daniels) finally treating Vic Walker (Marc Menchaca) to that promised hunting trip. Initially, the trip proves to be a complete bust, leaving Vic to suspect that Del had ulterior motives for making the offer. When Vic mentions this, Grace Poe (Maura Tierney) and her approval of Vic become the focus of the conversation. Vic is in the middle of returning Grace’s praises when a massive buck emerges. Harris allows Vic to take the shot but something goes awry and Harris is forced to put it down.
After her nightmarish experience with Billy Poe (Alex Neustadter) and wanting to avoid a repeat, she demands he and Isaac English (David Alvarez) put the murder of Pete Novick (Jim True-Frost) behind them. She also points out that each of them did what they did to protect the other.
Armed with the video of Grace threatening Chloe Tatlock (Jamie Neumann) and Frank Deluca (Namir Smallwood) by his side, Sheriff Steve Park (Rob Young) visits Judge Glenn Paronne (Guy Boyd) to request a search warrant. The judge not only refuses the request but practically insults him for shoddy police work. After the meeting, Park has a few words with Frank about leaving out to dry. Frank claims he agrees with the judge’s decision while simultaneously reminding Park that outsiders have to walk a thinner line.
Harris finally gains Vic’s trust when he uses a thumbs-up pose with the dead stag. After Harris reveals the story behind the pose, Vic shares a similar picture of a similar pose with a drug dealer he recently killed. He gains even more favor when he offers to back Vic on a Brotherhood decision at the next poker game.
While Lee, Billy, and Isaac spend the day together, Grace’s card gets declined at the Bryant Street Market. After seeing the reaction that Grace got with the locals during the last City Hall meeting, Russell Wolf (Christopher Denham) uses the opportunity to offer her an ambassador position at Landwill. Despite the offer sounding too good to be true, she takes it.
Chief Park pays an unsuccessful visit to Harris’s Buell cabin where he is caught by Harris and Vic trying to dig a slug out of a tree. He’s practically laughed off the property. Billy continues his training but becomes frustrated once again when he reaches his limitations. At Landwill, Isaac is still monitoring Russell from afar while Lee ramps up her investigation into the energy giant.
Harris and Grace see Vic off from the cabin with a cooler full of tenderloins and the offer to return anytime. After a bit of cheerful back-and-forth banter and the mention of bringing along Cynthia Frazier (Britian Seibert) on his next visit, it becomes clear that Harris has won Vic’s favor.
Chief Park appears to be in a bit of a dispirited mood as he discusses Deluca’s theory with Maya Park (Sara Lindsey). It doesn’t take Maya long to put his fears to bed. Elsewhere, Vic appears to be a completely transformed man as well when he puts the weekend’s venison to good use by cooking dinner for Cynthia as an apology. Although Cynthia approves of the meal, Vic becomes frustrated when he senses her ‘pulling away from him.’ In a desperate attempt to regain her favor, he purposely crushes his finger in the loading port of his hunting rifle.
With Vic’s favor, Del believes he’ll be able to have the Brotherhood wrapped up on a silver plate by the time their next poker game is over. While relaying this information to Agent Joe Dordt (Ben Cain), a call from Detective Angela Burgos (Luna Lauren Velez) comes in, reminding him about the Nell McKenna case. He abruptly ends the call after promising to put it at the top of his ‘to-do’ list.
When Dennis (Brendan Burke) finds himself woken and irritated by the Landwill’s noisy construction around his RV, he reaches out to Virgil Poe (Mark Pellegrino) for help. Being that it’s 6 am, Virgil doesn’t appear to be in much of the helping mood but he does appear to calm Dennis for the time being.
During Nell’s interrogation, Harris and Burgos go at her hard with the cheating spouse/adultery angle. Nell admits that her relationship with Liam McKenna (Andrew William Smith) wasn’t perfect but assures them she had nothing to do with his death. Both Harris and Burgos notice her immediate reaction when they share footage of the bomber, captured from a neighbor’s doorbell camera. Nell clearly recognizes the man but is soon whisked away by her lawyer. When the interrogation ends and before Harris can rush off to another meeting, Burgos shares her strategy of having Cynthia go back through every second of the surveillance tapes.
Billy visits what appears to be an Army training/recruiting facility and meets Sergeant James (Martin Fisher).
Harris meets with Lee at a local restaurant/bar where he immediately tells her about the arrival of Henry English’s (Bill Camp) headstone. Once he agrees to attend the placement ceremony, she asks for his advice/opinion on what she refers to as a ‘difficult case as work.’ She claims the more she uncovers, the stranger it gets, and being such a new employee with the firm, she fears speaking out about it. He tells her to think long and hard about the repercussions. If after that, she still wants to speak up then she needs to go about it in the smartest way possible.
Dennis appears to be in the middle of a mental break when he shows up at the Landwill site with his pistol. He continues to stumble and mumble along until he eventually aims at Isaac. Russell reacts just in the nick of time to save his life. After the authorities arrest Dennis, Russell returns to the site trailer where Isaac and a romantic encounter are waiting on him.
Vic is put on high alert when he receives an unexpected call from Raymond Fisher (Kyle Beltran), requesting to see both his and Cynthia’s cell phones. Despite Vic deleting his photo with Ramirez, his meeting his Fisher reveals that he already knows about it. It appears that it got flagged when Burgos used Cynthia’s phone to send the photo to herself. Vic expresses his outrage, but Fisher promises to take care of him as long as he is honest. Fisher then makes the strange request that they visit the Fox Hole Bar for a more private discussion. After sharing a quick drink inside, Fisher lures her out back where he reveals that it isn’t Cynthia that concerns him but Burgos.
Isaac, Lee, and Billy continue to bond with a night out at the bar. Lee tells Isaac about their father’s headstone and he agrees to take the day off for the ceremony. Although things appear to be going well, Lee becomes anxious to get back to the Landwill case and has Isaac drive her to the office. Billy opts to stay and Isaac promises to rejoin him.
Park becomes overwhelmed with emotion when he learns from Deluca that they officially have the murder weapon that fired the slug that killed Chloe. The excitement fades when Park not only learns that the weapon does match with the slug from Sue Herlitz’s (Emily Davis) case, but it doesn’t belong to Grace.
Agent Dordt outfits Harris with another fancy/high-tech recording device while Billy experiences a PTSD/flashback from his time behind bars. Cynthia is still waiting for Vic at the station when Chief Bolt (Leon Addison Brown) joins her in the break room for a cup of coffee and a quick conversation about the difficulties of giving up cigarettes. Lee sneaks back into the firm where she attempts to learn more about the Landwill case.
Grace treats Bethany (Zenzi Williams) to a night out at Snarly’s where she brags and flashes around the money from her sign-on bonus with Landwill. While Bethany immediately makes it known that she isn’t interested in signing any deals with Landwill a breaking news report comes in on the flat screen. Before showing the leaked cell phone recording of Grace’s tirade, the report announces Dennis as the prime suspect in Chloe’s murder. Apparently, it was the weapon he nearly shot Isaac with that matched the slug.
When Isaac returns to the bar, he finds Billy engaged in an intimate encounter with what appears to be a random female. The episode with Cynthia being startled by something she notices while going back over the surveillance footage from the bombing case. Harris is equally shocked when Vic doesn’t show up for their poker game.
American Rust Review
With everything that was revealed in the episode, I can only expect that nothing will actually be as it seems. I enjoyed the episode and was shocked by the road some of the stories are shaping up. I expect everything to tie together in the end, but it just seems there is so much going on at times. My biggest complaints would have to be the unnecessary dark scenes and all the filler content. The scene with Billy meeting Sergeant James or the scene would be the perfect example. Other than this, I am still as interested in ever as seeing how things shape up. For that, I’d have to give the episode a 5.5 out of 10.
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