Santa Jesus – The episode opens with Rebecca (Nichole Galicia) finding Mayor Mike McLusky’s (Jeremy Renner) office empty.
Rudy’s Pub – Mike orders another drink. Paris (Tina Ivlev) refills his glass. They briefly discuss the death of her grandfather, Billy. She assures him that he won’t drown in a bottle of alcohol. He sarcastically says it’s none of her business before handing over his keys. She tells him her work hours. He asks her to put his gun, phone, and several other items in Billy’s safe before walking out the door.
Deverin “Bunny” Washington (Tobi Bamtefa) gives Raphael (D Smoke) a keyboard before informing him of his release. He assures him that he’ll have the cell to himself and he’s the boss. Raphael acknowledges what he says.
Mike emerges from a convenience store with a bottle of alcohol. Mariam McLusky (Dianne Wiest) leaves Mike a voicemail, reminding him of Jacob Reed (Jake Schur) being moved out of juvenile when Kyle McLusky (Taylor Handley) arrives home. He tells her that no one can get in touch with Mike before assuring her that he’s okay.
Bunny walks out of prison to a welcome party. He calls Mike to invite him to his party when Kyle pulls up. Digo (Phil Rice) tells him to move on down the road. Kyle informs him of his being Mike’s brother. Digo frisks him before escorting him at gunpoint to the rooftop. He identifies him as Mike’s brother. Bunny agrees to talk to him.
A prison guard informs Ian (Hugh Dillon) of Charlie (Kenny Johnson) fracturing a tooth while eating rocks. Ian agrees to take Charlie to the dentist.
Kyle asks Bunny if he thinks it was odd that Mike didn’t pick him up at the prison before reminding him of Luis’s (Reinaldo Fabrelle) death. He asks if Aryan Brotherhood or Bloods put a target on Mike. Bunny says maybe but there hasn’t been any word of it. He agrees to make a few calls.
Ian has Charlie put on gloves, a hair cap, and shoe covers before escorting him into Ben Morrisey’s (Blake Shields). He gives him a document to read before naming off a list of crimes – rape, confinement, and 17 homicides. Ben says that’s messed up. Ian assures him that Robert (Hamish Allan-Headley) is a good guy. Ben asks how he got him out of prison. Ian warns that Charlie knows where he lives. Ben admits to speaking with the DA. Ian suggests saying he panicked. Ben describes Robert as a “psychopath” who shot recklessly during the prison riot. Ian says he and his family will be getting a fresh start in Florida. Ben contacts the DA office to say he can’t testify.
Irate, Ben warns Ian that he’ll be responsible when Robert kills again. He tells him that he’s no different than “his rapist guard dog.” Charlie attacks him. Ian orders him to pull Ben inside the house. He turns over some furniture and takes Ben’s watch and wallet. He locks the door and orders Charlie to bust it in before they leave.
Joseph (George Tchortov) and Tatiana (Gratiela Brancusi) take Iris (Emma Laird) to see Milo Sunter (Aidan Gillen). Milo tells Iris that she’s not afraid even though Joseph beats her. She tells him that he beats her and Joseph only acts it out. He says her current job is a waste of talent.
Kingstown Juvenile Detention Center – An officious guard (Bennie Taylor) informs Mariam that Jacob has been moved somewhere else. She tells him that Jacob’s transfer is scheduled for tomorrow. He suggests scheduling an appointment at the main house next week.
Mike asks Allison (Callie Thorne) how she’s doing. She informs him of Terry’s death. They curse the riots. She asks if he’s still playing both sides. He denies playing sides.
Charlie asks Ian if he’s angry at him. Ian says no before aiming his gun at the back of his head. After a few seconds, he puts the gun away and tells Charlie that they’re heading back now.
Kyle, Stevie (Derek Webster), and Robert are in a pub. Robert informs Kyle of Ben changing his mind about testifying. Kyle suggests Mike got him to change his mind. Robert says Mike isn’t answering his phone. Bunny calls Kyle to say there are no hits out for Mike. Kyle thanks him before heading back inside the pub. Ian tells them that he transported an inmate to the dentist. Kyle tells him that Robert has been cleared. They celebrate with some shots.
Mike and Allison get intimate. They briefly discuss the riots. The next morning, a black car pulls up when he emerges from her house.
Ian and Kyle are in Mike’s office when Rebecca and Rhonda (Nona Parker Johnson) arrive. Mariam calls Mike’s cellphone. Kyle explains to her that he doesn’t know where Mike is at.
The black car follows Mike to Rudy’s Pub. Paris answers the door as the car drives past. He takes his gun but she refuses to give him his car keys. He orders her to lock the door before leaving. The driver chases him down. Mike fires several shots into the windshield. The car comes to rest against a building. Mike slowly approaches the vehicle to find what looks to be Davidson (Matt Gerald) behind the wheel. He’s setting on a bench when Milo approaches as the episode comes to an end.
Mayor Of Kingstown Review
Mike goes off on his own, giving up his phone, car, and gun. Kyle searches everywhere for him. Bunny is released from Prison. Ian takes Charlie to Ben Morrisey’s house to talk to him about Robert. After agreeing to not testify against Robert, Morrisey insults Ian. Charlie kills him. Ian stages the house to look like a home invasion robbery. He contemplates killing Charlie, instead, returns him to the prison.
Mike is almost mowed down by a car driven by what looks to be Davison. Cinematography has never been the show’s strong point.
The lack of realism takes the credibility away. How do they justify Ian signing Charlie out of prison, taking him to Morrisey’s, and he ends up killing him? A staged home invasion robbery is a bit too obvious. Realistically, he would have been caught on Morrisey’s or a neighbor’s home surveillance. Even, a corrupt police force couldn’t save him.
The episode deserves a 5.5. Get more Mayor of Kingstown recaps here. Support Reel Mockery by clicking here. Ask about our onsite advertising.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
So… Mike wanders around town for 75% of the episode getting drunk off his arse pausing to have age sex with a middle aged woman (which given the amount of straight booze he’s consumed he wouldn’t even be able to walk, much less have sex). Some kid gets sold up the river to max security prison before Mike can work his “mojo”. Bunny, and I suppose the head Aryan (can’t tell if it was him in the car die to the shite makeup effects), get released. The Aryan drives around erratically .. not even sure what he was trying to do anyway since he could have easily run Mike down after he left the woman’s house and crashes in a super anticlimactic moment after Mike unoads like 20 rounds from a 9MM that holds 8 bullets. Milo creates a word salad with Iris that made zero sense. Some ridiculous staged murder of an informant, who already recanted his testimony, takes place. Ian, I suppose, contemplates shooting a guy from behind in the head then explaining somehow to the prison why the prisoner went out to the dentist but came back dead. And Milo walks up on Mike, who just so happens to be sitting in front of the Greek Orthodox church where Milo has been successfully hiding the past 8 episodes.
Dumb… dumb… dumb. It’s so dumb it hurts.
lol! You got time for a James Luther weekly guest post here? Because your recap is a lot more humorous than mine. hahaha! It isn’t getting any better is it? I’d probably give it an even lower score if I wasn’t afraid of being bombarded with hateful comments by the Sheridan fanboys lol. Can’t imagine how silly it’ll get now with 2 episodes left.
I don’t follow Rotten Tomatoes because I just despise the whole concept, it dictates largely the sucess or failure of a film even before its finished its opening weekend, adds absolutely nothing of value to the filmgoing experience, and it’s tainted anyway because both Disney and Warner both have financial interest in it… but I noticed recently that Mayor of Kingstown holds a 42% score with “critics”. So you are not alone, and 42 out of 100 is about how I feel about it. People… or sheple… fall all over themselves for Paramount Ty Sheridan productions no matter how dumbfounding they are. I would wear it as a badge of honor that you don’t follow the masses but find the show is deeply flawed.
For some reason, I think the viewer reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are a little more realistic than IMDB sometimes. A lot of people review a show after one episode and leave that review throughout whether its a 10-star or a 1-star rating. Many times, those reviews say nothing about the show in question. I generally believe about 50% of what I read in terms of reviews anywhere.
It’s hard not to be jaded but some of the scores given to certain shows/movies can be difficult to believe. I’d have to think bots are a big problem. Combine that with companies buying fake reviews to boost ratings for everything from shoes to shows and it is best to be skeptical. Even the press release system is skewed by scammers trying to rip people off. I could go on about that all day but that’s a whole different story lol.
It would be a clear FTC violation to in any way buy reviews or influence them, or to use bots. I believe the lid will blow off Rotten Tomatoes some day. This happened in the early 1980s surrounding the Top 40, which was based on radio plays. Turned out some record execs were paying DJs in big market cities to play their singles… hence driving them up on the charts. It was known as the “Payola Scandal”.
If there is a way to game the system, I am sure someone will find out how and use that to their advantage regardless of the costs. It really isn’t as bad with television shows and such because you either watch them or you don’t. But, a lot of people from other countries use certain practices to scam westerners. The Internet has really become the wild west and most westerner consumers don’t know anything about it because there isn’t enough consumer education or protections out there.
Just do a quick search for buy IMDB reviews or Amazon reviews. Because most of those involved are not in western countries, they’ll never face any repercussions. One off the top of my head is Blaux which is still selling on Amazon. A lot of cheap Alibaba stuff dropshipped to people who buy on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, ect. The item might be a few dollars on Alibaba/Aliexpress, but they sell it for $80+ sometimes. If people would just read the BBB complaints, they wouldn’t buy this stuff.
At least there is some safety on those sites, but these people sell it on their own sites too with no protection besides a little from PayPal if it is used. The ClickBank stuff is equally bad if not worse pretending to offer curses for uncurable diseases. Because of my actual work, I see it every day and some poor unsuspecting person, usually a westerner, getting ripped off. It’s definitely on the verge of being out of control.
We’re off the pavement now, but: I started writing reviews for Amazon’s Vine program (of course you’ve never heard about it!) in 2008 and it was all still sort of new. Reviews were often well written and helpful. Then bit by bit, naturally, it started the slide. Bought reviews were showing up, one-word reviews.. and the famous “Five Stars!” in exchange for some cheap Chinese goods. And as more vendors ramped up, so did the shill reviews. A lot.
While at one time it made a difference, online reviews are often a joke, you have to read everything to get any idea of whatever the product may be.
Thanks for adding your thorough opinions. I agree that TS does good in some areas although the plots always seem pretty thin to me. There really isn’t much substance since most of his shows follow such a simple route to the finish line. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing though because it makes these shows easy to digest and simple. Usually enjoyable anyway since there is no need to analyze, try to guess who the culprit is, ect.
I actually have heard of Amazon’s Vine program although I was never part of it. It is unfortunate, but the internet is so overloaded with fake stuff. 99% of those websites that pretend to review products really know nothing about those products even though they often claim to test them. Besides working on this site, I do a little work in that area and see it so often.
Amazon affiliates are bad, but the Clickbank stuff is far, far worse lol. But yeah, they’ve taken over IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and all those sites now. If I see a 10/10 or a 0/10 on any of those sites, I suspect it is fake because nothing is perfect or that awful. Some do this to offset politically charged reviews, but many are undoubtedly paid for which has been a big problem for Amazon for a long time now.
Rotten Tomatoes specifically had a scandal of sorts with Bunker 15 paying $50 or more for reviews. It isn’t the only one doing this obviously. There are also many smaller sites owned by non-English speakers using AI or paying a few bucks for some English writer to create the content for them.
For better or worse, I am probably too honest with these reviews although sometimes a little too generous too and I often pay for it lol. It is really just all opinion though and I suspect someone else probably feels the same way I do even if most don’t. I could go on and on about fake reviews and how they hurt the few honest sites out there though.