We’re In The Memory-Making Business – The season 1 finale begins with the death of Gracie/The Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith). It’s more of a farce than anything thanks to a stray bolt of lightning striking a nearby tree. The bolt not only splits the tree but it provides Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner) with the opening she needs. As she jerks away from Gracie’s grip, the friction causes Gracie to trip and become impaled by the split tree. As she lies dying, she says a final goodbye to Egg (David St. Louis), Lulu (Amina Massai), and Ya-Ya (L. Scott Caldwell) in apparition form.
The following day, the storm might be over, but it’s just the beginning for Neville Stafford (Ronald Peet) and Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn) as they watch Egg conspiring with his new backup. Realizing that there isn’t much they can currently do, they decide to regroup for the moment. It isn’t long after this that Yancy decides to reach out to Director Rhodes (Lauren O’Quinn) to cryptically tell her that he will be arriving in Miami later with several VIP guests. He was hoping that she could be there to greet them. She not only understands his meaning but she later agrees to overlook K.J. Claspers’s (Bob Clendenin) previous charges for flying them in. Yancy pushes his luck by asking for one more favor, which is explained in the next scene as a courtesy call to Councilman Browning’s assistant to let her know that Nick and Eve’s assets will be frozen at the end of the business day.
Christopher/Nick Stripling (Ron Delaney) and Eve are strategizing with Egg and his new hire right about the same time the call about the frozen accounts comes in. This sends Eve into overdrive, but Nick quickly takes charge by ordering her to go to the bank and withdraw all their money while sending Egg in search of a replacement pilot to take them to Nassau. From there he plans on skirting in London.
Having regrouped themselves and joined Dawnie (Reese Antoinette), Neville and Yancy are working on a new way to get a gun. Surprisingly enough, there appear to be precious few available in Andros, most cops don’t even carry, according to Neville. Uncle Charles (Dwayne A. Thomas) who provided the previous gun only has a new set of binoculars to offer. This little powwow eventually leads to Yancy calling Doctor Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez) to find out exactly where she discarded their previous weapon. Being that their relationship is already rocky, this takes a bit of convincing before Rosa hangs up on him.
Both Claspers and Charles will eventually join Yancy’s brigade on the search. After finding the gun, Yancy and Neville end up staking out the bank, in hopes that Eve will show up. She does but just as Yancy makes his approach, Sheriff Sonny Summers (Todd Allen Durkin) surprises him with an unexpected phone call. Being that Yancy isn’t even in Miami, he has to come up with quite a convincing lie when Summers starts prying.
Egg isn’t having as much luck finding a replacement pilot but thanks to Claspers’ unhealthy fritter addiction, he and Egg will end up face-to-face, as do Yancy and Eve. Yancy practically has Eve right where he wants her, but things immediately go bad the minute Egg shows up with police backup, claiming that it was Yancy who shot him. Yancy immediately admits that the ballistics will match his gun but he isn’t the one who shot Egg. Either way, it doesn’t matter because the cops let them leave, All the while, Neville has helplessly watched all this go down safely from the sidelines. Lucky for Yancy, he finally decides to intervene. The debacle ends with Yancy and Neville speeding away in the cop’s cruiser. Seconds later, they meet with Claspers who can’t hide his guilt. Clasper will redeem his mistake when he tells them about hearing that all outgoing and incoming flights have been put on hold for the moment. This leaves the Stripling’s only escape option as the yacht.
While Egg prepares the yacht for the upcoming trip, Nick’s injury causes Eve to realize that she’s not built to be a caretaker. It won’t take him long to suspect what she has planned, but being practically paralyzed there isn’t much he can do. Eve pushes him into the lake and watches him drown. Egg immediately notices and asks about Nick’s absence which she will explain as not wanting to push him all the way. When Egg leaves to get him, Eve flees in the yacht.
Yancy and Neville arrive only seconds after Eve pulls away in the yacht. Due to her hasty departure and lack of boating knowledge, Eve didn’t fully roll in the tie-down rope. Yancy reaches that rope and rides along with the boat for several minutes, but he will ultimately let it go.
Surprisingly enough, it is Neville who discovers Nick’s corpse while fishing several days later. Most of Andros, including Egg comes out to witness the prize catch. Egg tells Neville that Dawnie is a good woman and encourages him not to mess it up. While Yancy tries to comfort Caitlin (Charlotte Lawrence), Neville will be reunited with Driggs (Crystal The Monkey) after picking Lulu up from a session with Ya-Ya.
By this time, Eve has made a nice little place for her and Tilly in Portugal but it’s only a matter of time before fate intervenes. One particular afternoon while enjoying baby carrots and a glass of champagne, she gets choked and falls several stories to her death from what appears to be the top outdoor balcony of a restaurant.
After Yancy returns home, he’ll practically find himself in the same situation when the series began, badge-less and working as a food inspector. He’ll also learn that he’s got a new set of neighbors, Madeline (Nina Grollman) and Pestov (Anthony Belevtsov) that he might actually enjoy living next door to. He also receives a call from Bonnie Witt (Michelle Monaghan) one afternoon that reveals she is still on the run with Tomas (Nicolas Sellar). That conversation will be interrupted by a surprise visit from Rosa who wants to have sex first and talk later. She doesn’t stick around long afterward and claims that she needs to see what the world has to offer before she can tie herself down permanently. Yancy appears to accept this.
As time passes, it is revealed that Donald (Tyler Colfer) is now working for Director Rhodes. Neville has found the perfect spot to rebuild his beachfront home with proceeds from Nick’s watch. The episode ends with Rogelio Burton (John Ortiz) visiting Yancy and making him the same proposition that he made at the beginning of the series. Yancy can only hold out for so long before asking what he has in the car.
Bad Money Review
Now that was a decent finale. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this series got better as it went along. A lot of this could have been attributed to the characters and story growing on me, but I think the majority of it was due to the shortened episodes. It seemed that the episode got shorter and shorter as the finale approached.
I’ve always felt ending a good story would be the hardest part but Bad Monkey was one of the few to succeed. I don’t want to give away too much, but something about the episode felt final. Maybe it was the death of a lot of the main characters but I’d almost be disappointed if the series got renewed. I really liked seeing Yancy do a complete 360. A really good finale to what was an easily forgettable series. The episode deserves a 6.4 out of 10.
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