Nobody Said He Was Alvin Einstein – The episode begins with Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn) and Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez) deciding to question Madeline (Nina Grollman) after confirming that the discovered bone shards are a match with Nick Stripling. Before they can do that, however, Yancy must inspect Samara’s (Aba Arthur) restaurant. This is where he meets Driggs (Crystal The Monkey) and Neville Stafford (Ronald Peet) and ends up cutting them a break.
Madeline immediately attempts to run again upon immediately seeing Yancy but he is prepared this time. Madeline explains her fleeing as past drugs charges. In addition to admitting that, she also tells them that Charles Phinney (Brett Cormier) was paid to stage the arm incident. She even has the cooler the arm came in, which just happens to be emblazoned with Nick Stripling’s company logo, Midwest Mobile Medical.
After Samara gives Neville his take from the sale of his home, Neville returns to Andros with intentions of clearing his mind with a day of fishing. That is ruined by Christopher (Rob Delaney), who has not only cut his John boat free but shoots at him. At the same time, the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) receives more disrespect from Andrea Wendell (Anmalya Delva) as she attempts to help her mother, Hope (Sabrina Mayfield) with the crossing over of family patriarch, James Wendell (Gordon Eric Knowles). She and Ya-Ya (L. Scott Caldwell) later discuss the younger generation and their blatant disrespect.
Yancy goes as far as to don a tie before he and Rosa pay a visit to Nick’s medical supply company. Their trip is sidelined with a very brief phone call from Bonnie Witt (Michelle Monaghan), but it doesn’t take long before they get back on track. It is at the medical company that they meet Donald Davis (Tyler Colfer), who immediately assumes Yancy to be a fed, given the tie. Although Yancy and Rosa spend several minutes inflating Donald’s ego, it ends up working against them once he decides to take his job more seriously. After discovering several prescriptions written by Israel/Izzy O’Peele (Zach Braff), Yancy and Rosa are forced to make a quick exit through the rear entrance. They do escape but Yancy sustains a vicious dog bite on his right butt.
Neville attempts to air his grievances with the Dragon Queen are sidelined thanks to James’s funeral. This leads to him visiting Dawnie (Reese Antoinette) and Lulu (Amina Massai) to seek lodging for the evening. Despite Yancy’s injury and the urgency to question Israel, he makes Rosa make a special stop at Detective Johnny Mendez’s house (Gonzalo Menendez), where he unearths his mailbox and throws it in the front yard. The Narrator/Captain Fitzpatrick (Tom Nowicki) informs viewers that Mendez is the reason Yancy isn’t a cop anymore but doesn’t expand.
Later that evening, while Rosa and Yancy learn about Izzy and Nick’s ghost-patient scam, Neville confronts the Dagon Queen about the lack of results from her curse. Izzy refuses to say anymore once he learns of Phinney’s death. Yancy leaves him with his contact information. Neville’s meeting doesn’t go much better thanks to the Dragon Queen blaming the curse’s failure on his lack of belief. He gives her an extra $500.00 to speed things along. Although she and Ya-Ya take the money, they tell him he will need to sacrifice something that he loves to prove his faith. Without thinking twice, he gives them Driggs.
Izzy is clearly scared after learning about Phinney’s death, which leads to him calling Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner). Much to his surprise, she does make him feel better but claims to not be able to do much for him unless he comes to Miami. The conversation ends with him promising to seriously consider the trip.
Elsewhere over ice cream, Yancy shares Christopher’s Tour brochure that he took from Izzy’s refrigerator. With the knowledge of Christopher’s last name, Grunion, they make plans for a later background check. Yancy attempts to fill the remaining time with what Rosa refers to as ‘small talk,’ but she loses interest quickly.
In need of a place to spend the night, Neville visits his uncle Charles (Dwayne A. Thomas), which nearly leads to him getting shot again. They very briefly discuss their shared problems with Egg (David St. Louis) and Christopher before Charles makes him promise to sleep on things before making a decision. Neville agrees.
Yancy continues to be a thorn in Evan Shook’s (Alex Moffat) side when he likely destroys any hopes Evan had of selling his home to Barb (Mary Palermo) and Buzz (Tom Hillmann). He does this by cleverly playing up the viciousness of the neighborhood dogs, using his own wound.
True to his word, Neville spent the entire night thinking about his problems with Christopher. He even spends several hours the following morning thinking about it while fishing. Yancy is practically doing the same thing when he receives a call from Madeline, with fears that she’s being tailed. He gives her a brief lesson on how to pick up a tail which surprisingly enough appears to make her feel better. It’s only seconds later when he receives a text from Izzy that he wants to talk.
Rosa doesn’t know it, but her meeting with Officer Murphy (Tony Bentley) reveals that she now has a tail of her own, Detective Mendez. After briefly mentioning her lack of success with finding any information on Christopher, she inquires about Yancy. Murphy describes him as a human anchor but otherwise, a decent guy.
Yancy meets Sheriff Sonny Summers (Todd Allen Durkin) and Regelio/Ro (John Ortiz) at Stoney’s Crab Shack to pick up his department-issued vehicle. This is where he not only learns that the Stripling case has now been officially deemed an accident thanks to Caitlin (Charlotte Lawrence), but Ro has been poking around the case as well. Yancy’s next visit is with Caitlin where he accuses her of declaring the death an accident so she and Eve could split the insurance money. She denies the claim and her expression suggests that she’s genuinely hurt by his harsh remarks.
Yancy arrives just seconds after Izzy is shot in the head. After a very brief discussion with Izzy’s neighbor that reveals nothing helpful, Yancy calls Rosa. Surprisingly enough, Rosa is right in the middle of a debate with Mel Campesino (Gizel Jimenez) about him. Their conversation reveals that Rosa has not only been thinking about dating Yancy but Heather the Weather Girl (Lauren Buglioli) hasn’t shown up for work.
Yancy ends up at the morgue after failing to get Rosa on the phone. It appears that in his haste to get away from Izzy’s apartment, he’s ripped open his stitches. He and Rosa discuss the case while she reinforces the stitches. It’s not long after he fails to reach Madeline on the phone that he and Rosa end up racing to the t-short shop where she works.
After giving it a lot of thought, Neville breaks into Christopher’s office. As soon as he finds a USB stick hidden in the far reaches of a desk drawer, Egg shows up. Neville tells Egg that Christopher is ruining the island but he doesn’t appear to care as long as he’s getting paid for his work. Despite that, it only takes Neville pulling out Charles’s revolver to get him to back down. Neville slugs him in the face on his way out.
Becoming more and more concerned for Madeline, Yancy calls and asks Ro to swing by her work. It turns out he’s right in the middle of doing dishes after having dinner with Montenegro/Monte (Victor Turpin).
Caitlin pulls a weapon of her own when she unexpectedly visits Eve to accuse her of killing Nick. Rosa appears to become more attracted to Yancy after seeing how much he fears for her safety. Madeline ends up being perfectly fine and Ro arrives shortly after he and Rosa do.
The episode ends with Eve refusing to admit to Nick’s death because he is still alive. This is when it is revealed that Nick is actually Christopher and he’s missing an arm.
Bad Monkey Review
Not a horrible episode but it would have been so much better with a little bit of fine tuning. I understand the need for side stories and even welcome some of the character’s tangents. However, there are quite a bit of scenes that I feel are practically useless. The scene with Lulu and Dawnie would be the perfect example. It was only just a minute or so and it might lead to something later but I felt it could have been excluded. The scene with Bonnie was another that could have been cut.
Other than this, the episode was fantastic. Some of the acting and scenarios were off-key and cringe but I was surprised with the shocking reveal. In addition, it was nice to see Zach Braff back on the scene, although he isn’t a great actor. I’d give the episode a 5.4 out of 10.
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