The Chain – As the third episode of Florida Man begins, Kaitlin Fox (Lauren Buglioli) does a news report about a man breaking into the Orange County Jail. The man was out on bail on charges of robbing a jewelry store and wanted to retrieve his cell phone from the effects locker because it contained directions to his next robbery. When the man falls through the ceiling, Deputy Ketcher (Clark Gregg) hides in another room. While the guards are busy, Ketcher manages to escape the jail. Delly West (Abbey Lee) visits Sonny (Anthony LaPaglia) who calls her the girl who wasn’t murdered. She shows him the coin and suggests he can help locate the rest.

Sonny quickly realizes that Mike doesn’t know she is there. Delly explains he doesn’t think it is true. Sonny learns that nine figures are involved and eight of them are zeros. Mike (Edgar Ramirez) calls Delly to say he knows where the truck is. Delly says she got hungry, but she’ll come back so they can celebrate. After the call, Delly tells Sonny this is awkward because Mike found it. Sonny gives Delly his number in case they need any help. Mike and Delly drink to celebrate at the motel before he says the gold is very heavy. He reveals that the sinkhole is no more than 70 feet deep. He’ll rent some scuba gear so they can find out more. Delly thinks he needs help because she doesn’t dive or lift things.

Mike refuses to work with his father because he is a criminal. He also worries that Sonny will take the gold if he finds out about it. After Delly agrees, Mike wins 40 bucks on a lottery ticket. Patsy (Otmara Marrero) works at the hospital. She texts Mike to say the EMT is circling the drain and likely doesn’t have long left now. When Delly wakes up, Mike tells her he wants to know how long they have to get the truck out of there. He is going to ask his brother-in-law for help since he does survey work at the sinkhole. Moss Yankov (Emory Cohen) calls to ask Mike whether there was anything on Delly when he discovered her body. He explains that she took some cash from his safe and a USB drive.

Moss wants him to go check again before revealing he is having a memorial for his murdered girlfriend. After the call, Delly claims not to know anything about the computer thing. Once Delly is alone, she messages Sonny to tell him that Mike isn’t going to work with him. Kaitlin talks to Dave (David Silverman) about letting her do investigative journalism so she can get out of there. Dave tells her she hasn’t investigated anything so she should just read what is on the teleprompter. Kaitlin tries calling Mike again and ends up leaving a message. Sonny keeps an eye on Mike while researching Delly. At the motel, Delly hears a couple having sex in another room. Mike steps outside and confronts his father for following him.

Mike stabs a knife in one of his tires so he won’t be able to follow him again. Sonny warns him that he is going to mess this up, so he should let him run the operation. He offers to cut Mike in at 10%. Sonny knows it was enough to get that girl to fake her own death. He makes it clear that he isn’t bluffing. Mike refuses to work with him and walks off. Delly calls someone to see if they got her email. She explains that there is more on the drive of Moss and his sister. If everything goes okay, she hopes to see them soon. Iris (Lex Scott Davis) shows Dunney the obituary for Delly and says Moss’s alibi is dead. She thinks they should send someone from the Organized Crime Task Force to the upcoming memorial.

Although he agrees, he makes it clear it won’t be her since she is off the case. Mike tries to get information from his brother-in-law Deacon (Michael Esper). He finds out that he has about four days. In terms of security, there is a fence around the hole and the church nearby pays a guard to circle the place at night. When Mike asks him about the fancy toilet, Deacon tells him about the foreman Steve Hubley. Mike suggests he wants to buy one for Sonny. He also agrees to have dinner with Sonny for Patsy. Mike approaches Steve Hubley (Stephan Jones) to talk to him about getting a toilet. Mike admits he doesn’t need a toilet. Instead, he needs someone who can work an hour of unauthorized overtime and who can run a crane.

Mike suggests he can pay him 500 bucks for an hour of work. He eventually goes up to a thousand bucks to get Steve’s interest. Jimmy (Owen Harn) asks Moss what he should say when people ask about the circumstances surrounding Delly’s demise. Moss wants him to tell the truth which is that he gave her a new BMW that she took on vacation to Florida. She became one of the millions tragically murdered there every year. Moss asks him about the computer thing since it is no longer in his safe. When Jimmy asks what is on it, Moss thinks about crime scenes although he claims it is just business stuff. Jimmy says his sister is going to try to make it, but she has meetings with the governor.

Moss asks him not to mention the computer thing when she comes. When Mike and Delly reach the sinkhole, they find Sonny and his two ex-cop friends with him. Mike wants to know which one of them followed him. Sonny thinks the only thing that matters now is that they join forces. Frank introduces Delly to Sonny, Ray-Ray (Leonard Earl Howze), and Buzz (Mark Jeffrey Miller). Sonny pretends he hasn’t met Delly yet. Mike insists he is going to be running the show. They want to split it five ways, but Delly isn’t happy with that. Buzz dives into the water to see if the truck is down there. Delly recommends Sonny and Mike play out their personal stuff on their own time.

They need to make a plan as to when and how to do this. She goes on to say the split is half to her and Mike and the other three can find out how to be happy with the rest of it. Buzz comes back up and yells that there is a brand-new Porsche down there. It is next to a big yellow truck. Back in the car, Mike asks Delly how Buzz knew there was gold since he mentioned the state of Florida pursuing gold claims. Delly is forced to admit that she went to Sonny because he was someone who could steal things. Mike explains he told Gil about the gold during a meeting so he is glad Gil is dead. Delly gets out of the car and says she isn’t going to ride with him.

She hopes he’ll take some of that money and get therapy. Mike claims he is doing this to get out. Delly yells that she doesn’t care before getting back into the vehicle and telling him to drive. They meet Sonny. Mike tells them that he wants to get it done in one night since he has already paid Deacon’s buddy to run the crane. Sonny suggests Mike has already told too many people. He also says they cannot leave anything to chance so they need to know how to move the truck somewhere to remove the goods. Ray-Ray says he can borrow a tow truck and Buzz is staking out the church guard situation right now. Delly thinks he is playing with the car though. Sonny says they can take care of the guard until they get the job done.

Delly decides to join Buzz and get eyes on the situation. Once she leaves, Sonny warns Mike that she is a firecracker and a man could get his fingers blown off. Buzz tells Delly she should take the money and go to Las Vegas. He is going to buy new boats and an airboat. Ray-Ray thinks the intervals are too short because the guard is already back at the church. He argues they need to find a way to keep him inside for 45 minutes. Delly realizes she’ll be in charge of that. When she asks about Buzz, Ray-Ray tells her that he grabbed a 220 wire when they were on duty. Sonny kept him on so he would get his pension although he wasn’t allowed to carry a sidearm. His wife left him. Ray-Ray admits cop marriages usually don’t last anyway according to statistics.

After she learns about Iris, Delly rushes back to the motel to move out of Mike’s room. She books the room next door. Moss holds the memorial for Delly. Iris attends and speaks to Jimmy while pretending to be Delly’s friend. Jimmy tells her what Moss said about Delly’s death. She finds out that Mike is the one who found Delly. At the station, Iris tells Donna Delgado what she found out. She wants to go to Florida to speak to Mike’s family to find out whether he is involved. Donna thinks it would be best to let it go. Moss thanks his sister for coming even though she waited until everyone else left. Dori (Li Jun Li) and Moss discuss the work they’re doing. She reveals that a cop was invited into the house today so she is worried he could mess this up for them.

Dori doesn’t think dad would’ve let her past the front door. After saying she is sorry about Delly, Dori thinks she should go back to Harrisburg since she needs to make some calls with the governor. Iris complains about Mike to her neighbor who doesn’t know why she still cares about him. She needs to know what he is doing because she isn’t sure she can trust her instincts anymore. Delly tries to keep the guard busy while Mike and Sonny prepare to put their plan into action. The guard invites her inside because the kitchen might have cookies. Sonny says they need to get moving because they have 45 minutes.

While they begin working, Delly does her best to keep Eric (Kevin Johnson) busy inside the church. Eric tells her about being in prison and having dark impulses. Buzz mentions the gold to Steve who is eager to learn more. Eric prepares to leave Delly so she tries to find a way to stall him. When he goes for the cookies, Delly texts the others saying she hopes they’re done. She hears something and decides to investigate. Mike and Sonny continue working under the water. Steve falls down with a bullet hole in his head.

 

Florida Man Review

The third episode of Florida Man was okay although the series is a little all over the place with so many needless characters. Some of the casting choices are getting odd at this point, but that could be forgiven if Florida Man would just get to the point. It is painfully clear the story was stretched to fill the episode count while many irrelevant side stories were added as a result.

It is already hard enough to care about Mike and his cohorts so the added extras certainly don’t help. When Florida Man focuses on Mike’s story though, it is at least decent so some viewers may be willing to give it a break. The series really didn’t need to try to do so much since it would’ve worked better with a shorter season and a simpler story without the unnecessary side steps.

Viewers willing to overlook these things and take it for what it is may enjoy the ride, but many won’t be able to do that. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Florida Man are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.