Ecotone – The episode begins with what appears to be a normal, peaceful day in Kingstown. Rhonda (Nona Parker Johnson) arrives early to open her salon while Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) cruises around Kingstown, and Tracy (Nishi Munshi) patches up a stab victim in the women’s ward. This peaceful image is shattered when a truck full of Aryans roll up on Rhonda’s shop and opens fire. Although Digo (Phil Rice) and another Crip are posted out front, they are little more than cannon fodder. Rhonda is killed in the process.
Ian Ferguson (Hugh Dillon) and KPD are already on the scene by the time Mike arrives as is Deverin ‘Bunny’ Washington (Tobi Bamtefa). Although Mike convinces Bunny to make himself scarce and apologizes, it doesn’t appear he will take his advice of not letting the Russians/AB bait him. After a quick word with Ian, Mike leaves the scene and makes a call to Kareem (Michael Beach) just as he is arriving at Anchor Bay to isolate Merle Callahan (Richard Brake).
After the call, Kareem looks down on the yard where Merle is speaking to the Norseman (B. Todd Johnston) about boosting their numbers. Merle harshly tells him to save the recruitment for the trailer park but the conversation is soon sidelined when they walk upon a slaughtered rabbit. After a quick visual post-mortem, Merle determines that the rabbit was either killed by a Cooper or Red Red-Tailed Hawk. Either way, as Merle so poetically puts it, the predator was smart enough not to eat the sh*t.
Raphael (D Smoke) learns about Rhonda’s death during a visit with Roe (Mystie Smith). He encourages her to take Trey (Brandon Faison) and leave town but she doesn’t appear to want to take him out of school when he is doing so well. The visitation quickly goes bad when Roe mistakenly reaches across the table to comfort him. CO Thomas (Benny Mora) immediately accuses them of passing contraband and makes a big deal of feeling Roe up while his pals drag Raphael back to his cell.
Mike meets with his crew at the diner to discuss a response to Rhonda’s murder. As far as Kyle McLusky (Taylor Hadnley) can tell it’s just a matter of time before Bunny hits back. Mike tells them about Kareem isolating Merle which he assumes will buy them at least 48 hours. From there, the strategy appears to be for Carney (Lane Garrison) to find out how the AB are getting their drugs in the prison. As for dealing with the Russians, Mike plans on boxing them out, starting with a search and seizure. Before leaving, Mike explicitly takes the time to tell Robert (Hamish Allan-Headley) not to fire a shot.
After Sherrie Maxwell/Cherry’s (Natasha Marc) water breaks, it falls on Dr. Carpenter (Jonathan Berry) and Tracy to make the delivery. This doesn’t start on the best foot, being that Dr. Carpenter and the guards are adamant about having Cherry cuffed to the bed. CO Breen (Matthew Del Negro) pulls Tracy to the side and gives her a pep talk while at the same time reminding her that having Cherry cuffed is standard operating procedure, as crappy as it might be.
Mike catches Evelyn (Necar Zadegan) just as she is arriving at the courthouse and tells her everything about what’s going on with the Russians and Aryans. She soon realizes that he is sharing the intel because he wants her to handle the warrant. She agrees to pull the warrant but immediately appears to regret her decision after learning that Swat will be serving it. Mike promises her that he’s on it.
Sometime later, Tracy visits Warden Tanya Michaels (Tara Karsian) to discuss Cherry’s pregnancy. Tanya immediately attributes Cherry’s pregnancy to the rookie guard who she subsequently murdered after he raped her. Tracy doesn’t hold any punches when she bluntly tells Tanya that Cherry’s pregnancy could not be related to that incident. Although Tanya promises to look into it, she also encourages Tracy to report the incident to the anonymous tip line. Tracy says she doesn’t need anonymity.
While Merle is moved to solitary, Mike calls to warn Iris (Emma Laird) about the search warrant. Despite his insistence to leave, she does not. As soon as he ends the call with her, Kareem calls to tell him that Merle has been isolated, but not searched. Although Kareem tells him there is no call for a cavity search, he ultimately agrees to do it. At nearly the same time in the motor pool, Carney and Kevin Jackson (Denny Love) make a breakthrough in the AB’s smuggling operation.
Other than Robert getting rough with Roman (Mark Ivanir) and elbowing Iris in the face, the raid goes off without a hitch. Some of this can be attributed to Kyle, who keeps Iris calm. He also tries to play the incident down later when he explains it to Mike. When Ian and Stevie (Derek Webster) arrive to oversee the search, Carney, Kevin, and CO Thomas set out to perform Merle’s cavity search. Once CO Thomas’s cronies show up and Kevin is intimidated into leaving, Carney is beaten for several minutes for standing his ground.
When Stevie and Ian’s interrogation of Konstantin Noskov (Yorick Van Wageningen) doesn’t appear to be going so well, Ian attempts to bait him by telling him that Tatiana Sonovitchka’s (Gratiela Brancusi) baby survived. This doesn’t get a rise out of either, which leads to Ian practically telling him that he is going to last in Kingstown. Elsewhere, Keno (Derek Basco) takes Iris to a secret meeting with Mike. Mike doesn’t waste any time vilifying her for not listening to him. She claims that leaving would have only made her look suspicious and put her at even greater risk. It is several minutes of this before Iris reveals Konstantin’s plans to bring in girls from Europe, chip them, and send them to modeling agencies from New York to Chicago. The meeting is ended when Mike receives a call from Merle, requesting a meeting.
Later that night, Mike learns about Carney’s attack and his suspicion that the Aryans are using the auto shop to smuggle drugs into the prison. Mike arrives at the funeral home the following morning just as Bunny is apologizing to her mother (Rita Gregory). She tells him that he can’t help what he was born into, but at least he did his best to show that he loved her. While he and Mike share a brief conversation about dying old or passing peacefully in one’s sleep, Kyle returns home to find that he and Tracy both have the next 24 hours off.
The episode ends with Mike visiting Callahan at the prison’s kennels. Once Mike admits to being behind his trip to the hole, Merle asks if that made him feel strong. Mike says he was caught off guard by his involvement with the Russians and needed a minute to balance that out. The conversation finally gets to its substance when Mike asks Merle what he’s going to do when Konstantin no longer has a use for him. Merle cockily tells Mike that this will never happen and tells Mike the only way for him to get balance is to finish off Bunny.
Mayor Of Kingstown Review
The power dynamic shifts and it was intriguing to watch it happen. Despite being a shorter, less action-packed episode, I enjoyed this one much more than the last. The shorter runtime made it feel as if everything that was happening was important, which was nearly the case. I certainly was not expecting Rhonda’s death but I have to say it was a clever move.
There aren’t many that Bunny cared for more and hitting her not only makes him look vulnerable but is going to have him in arrears. Of course, it’s likely just a matter of time before he and Mike hit back with some genius response that no one saw coming. I’d have to give the episode a 5.5 out of 10. Despite every episode’s plot having some kind of connection to the title, I really enjoyed this as well as the constant referring to the hierarchy within the animal kingdom.
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