Last episode, the boys ended up back in Scotland (and back in the clutches of scary mobsters), Kenny and Yvonne both independently ended up looking into some shenanigans involving the criminal enterprise behind some very fancy weed, and Roy turned out to be alive (before promptly getting killed). There was also a new guy (Rich Politician Type), who’s connected to this whole mess… somehow.
Speaking of new people, this week opens with a lady in fancy business clothes who’s definitely passed out on the couch in her very fancy home and overslept. After a quick shower, she goes into her office where we find out that:
- She’s American
- She’s been away from work recovering from a “skiing accident” (some kind of personal disaster)
- She’s being sent to Scotland to purchase a bank.
Her boss makes it pretty clear that this bank deal might be a little messy, but if she can keep everything together they’ll be able to move past whatever happened with the “skiing accident.” Given the show she’s on, I don’t have high hopes, but maybe she and her large pile of pain medications will surprise me.
Here’s the thing: it’s not just “a bank”: it’s THE National Bank of Scotland, and Rich Politician Type is heading up the press conference about the sale. Is this the quickie deal he was talking about at the very end of last week’s episode? Probably!
Anyway, let’s reconnect with our favorite mobsters, huh? Maggie’s being chauffeured by the handsome goon who may or may not be romantically involved with Kenny’s niece Skye.
Handsome Goon: Sorry I threw that guy over a balcony last week.
Maggie: You know, Roy did so well at this business because he never hesitated when he had to make decisions. You did the same, which is why I’m promoting you. And that’s why you’re going to get me that money.
Speaking of money, Maggie’s next meeting is with Teddy, who she asks to kill Max and Jake for 50 grand a piece, which isn’t nothing! The problem? Teddy had an arrangement with Roy that he wouldn’t have to do anything to Max.
Maggie: Aw, Roy: what a softie. Respectfully, he’s dead, and so is your deal. 100 grand for both of them, or I pay someone else that money to take you out. Go find them.
That might be difficult, because the boys have absconded to the middle of nowhere to wait out the situation. And by the middle of nowhere, I mean the isolated home of their father. Yeah, you read that right: apparently Max got Kenny to find the address, and has just been sitting on it for 2 seasons.
A very tense family reunion kicks off inside Dad Guilt’s living room. Why are his sons here now?
Max: We needed a place to hide, and thought maybe you’d want to apologize for the life altering TRAUMA.
Dad Guilt: Sure, I can do that, but I’m not clear how that’ll help us. How long are you staying?
Jake: Until you explain.
Dad Guilt: Cool, so a long time. I caught a big salmon this morning, and you look hungry.
They sure are, and they’re also still probably pretty gross after the whole “crawl through a manure-filled farm paddock to escape cops and murderous mobsters” thing. So Dad Guilt puts the kettle on.
Meanwhile, Maggie’s sitting through an interview with Yvonne, cool as a cucumber. The drugs? Never heard of ‘em! Roy, alive? Shocking! Getting her assets frozen and her house taken away? No big deal, the city’s full of crooks anyway!
Yvonne: Look, if you’re willing to talk about some of the corruption, I could stop freezing your assets. And keep you safe.
Maggie: Oh, don’t worry about little old me!
Yvonne: Here’s the deal: cooperate, or lose everything. Final offer.
Maggie: Interesting that Roy’s death wasn’t in the papers.
Yvonne: Well there’s an inquiry. We keep the name private out of respect.
Maggie: Mhm sure. Or is it just part of a deal I made to not sue for wrongful death? I’m tough and I’ve been here a long time. That frozen assets thing isn’t even a roadblock for me. Also, tell Demoted I’ll leave him alone.
Demoted doesn’t believe that for a second (maybe the first smart thing he’s done). He also tells Yvonne that the assets freezing thing was probably, somehow, Maggie’s idea in the first place. She’s wily AND very powerful: a scary combination indeed. The only way to take her down is to make sure she’s broke and banged up so her allies desert her.
Yvonne: Remember that guy who “fell” the other day? He had weed on him. Weed from Maggie’s farm. I need you to find out more.
Demoted: You’re only asking me because you know this is the only way to keep this out of the system, and keep Maggie and your boss from finding out.
Yvonne: Yep. Can I trust you?
Demoted: I’m a full-on disaster. But also if we don't take out Maggie, I’m dead. Your call!
Fun! Less fun? That bank deal. Rich Politician Type is doing his best to schmooze the American bankers, but our new pal Skiing Accident isn’t feeling it. She cuts off his chitchat, requests that he send the contracts to her hotel, and leaves her colleagues to party it up.
Not a party? Maggie’s hanging out with Handsome Goon at a diner and, after waxing poetic about the nature of grief, she gets right back on track: what’s happening with that debt?
Handsome Goon: I’m not saying. You should be insulated from stuff like that.
Maggie: Sort it out tomorrow. Or you’ll be punished.
This convo? Very much observed by Kenny, who as always remains a very good detective, if nothing else! Alas, he’s not doing a very good job at his stated goal of conceiving a baby: when Yvonne calls him, he explains that he’s working, and will be out late. Kind of wild that the two of them could really benefit from knowing what they’re both working on right now, but:
Meanwhile, at the worst family reunion of all time, both brothers give their abbreviated recaps of the previous two seasons. No surprises here: they both blame each other for their woes. This is fairly amusing to Dad Guilt (and to me, let’s be real). Less amusing: his life recap, which is basically abandon family → oil rig → disabled at work → move to the country for the fishing. He also explains that the boys’ Mum (who we know died after a long illness) struggled with mental health her whole life: he met her when she was in an inpatient psychiatric ward.
Dad Guilt: Anyway, let’s go fishing after this. It’ll be good for you.
Max: To be clear, we’re here because we have no choice. It’s too late for you to worry about what’s good for me.
Fair! I, however, am going to worry about what’s good for everyone, because things are getting… bad. Skye misses a call from Kenny (which is basically: call me back, you’re in deep sh*t) and runs into Handsome Goon.
Handsome Goon: Surprise! The drugs are Maggie and Roy’s.
Skye: WTF? Why didn’t you tell me?
Handsome Goon: I shouldn’t be telling you now. And look, Roy’s dead but Maggie is WAY scarier. You have to pay.
Skye: I can’t!
Handsome Goon: Then you need to leave. If you do that, and I say your mom wasn’t involved, maybe… she can’t blame me for you running.
At the same time, Kenny finds himself in equally deep sh*t: Teddy arrives at the Leith Legals office looking for Max. Kenny doesn’t know where they are, and tells Teddy that, but Teddy, like me, has realized that Kenny’s pretty damn good at his job.
Teddy: Then figure it out. Max is scared and desperate, which means he’ll be looking for his dad.
Kenny: Their dad left town decades ago.
Teddy: Yeah, but where did he go? I’m gonna go ahead and threaten you now, and then you think about if you know anything.
Kenny, through some painful squishing: Now that you mention it, Max did ask me to look up an address.
Fair enough, honestly, Teddy is pretty scary. Speaking of Max, he’s been unable to sleep and ends up finding Dad Guilt watching the bank deal press conference on the telly. They make weird small talk, until finally Max asks the big question: why didn’t Dad Guilt ever try to get in touch?
Dad Guilt: I didn’t have the right. I’d already ruined your life once, couldn’t do it again. So I waited for you to take the leap instead. You know, I thought about you a lot. How brave you were to agree to take care of your brother when you knew I was leaving.
Max: I thought about you too… when I was in prison. About how you put me there.
Dad Guilt: Look, I get it, but I don’t think blaming me will help you. You have to face what happened. Did you like that life you talked about in your update? Did it make you happy? Then get it back.
I’ll be honest: I think Max is fooling himself a bit here. But it’s his life! While they have their heart to heart, our friend Skiing Accident takes advantage of a sleepless night to start looking over the many many boxes of documentation for the bank. And Skye rocks up to Kenny’s office and tells him she needs to leave town. That’s convenient, because he does too!
And that’s how 90% of these characters end up trying to converge on the same location. Kenny’s plan is simple: he and Skye will team up with Max and Jake, because taking on Maggie is best attempted as a group project. Again, I am BEGGING you to get your cop girlfriend involved here, my man! Meanwhile, at Dad Guilt’s house, Jake lays it all out for his brother.
Jake: Look, we’re not here because we were out of options, we’re here because you think dad made you like this. You need to process that crap, and figure out what we’re doing next. In the meantime, we’re going fishing.
Fishing as a family, as it happens, is a great metaphor for their whole situation. Jake happily lets Dad Guilt cast his line, while Max refuses assistance even as he struggles to get his fly tied. Dad Guilt also says a very metal thing about how fishing is when you let the prey come look for you, which is the true meaning of power and ALSO exactly the brothers’ situation right now. For instance, scary Teddy is on his way towards them at this very moment. Has he had the setback of a minor fender bender plus his mounting guilt at hurting Max to contend with? Yes. But that’s probably not enough to stop him, let’s be real.
Have you been assuming it was only a matter of time before we found out that Maggie and Rich Politician Type were somehow connected? Me too, and we’re finally about to confirm that theory. Maggie’s summoned Rich Politician Type to explain that she’s leaving town, and she needs to do it with enough funds so that she doesn’t have to return. He’s her last resort. One problem: he doesn’t have enough cash on hand to give her, so this whole escape plan is contingent on the bank deal going through.
Meanwhile, Yvonne meets up with Demoted to share Roy’s cell phone records. It turns out that there’s a surprising contact who’s been calling Roy.
Demoted: If we look into this there’s no backing out.
Yvonne: Good. I’m sick of doing the job right and not being able to take out the real bad guys because of corruption. I want out, but I’m gonna do something good first.
Demoted: Cool, ok. BTW I looked into that dead guy: he was staying with this lady.
How long will it take for Yvonne to realize that said lady is her boyfriend’s sister? Time will tell.
Across town, Skiing Accident arrives at the bank and walks right into Rich Politician Type’s office. Why? Because those files weren’t the ones she requested, and if she doesn’t look over the actual paperwork, she can’t sign off on the deal. For whatever reason (my guess? crime!), Rich Politician Type is being aggressively cagey about this, and he also reveals that he did enough of a background check on Skiing Accident to know that she probably wasn’t taking time off just to recover from a normal injury. Cards on the table, he agrees to give her what she needs… if she signs an NDA. Not about to give up the last word, she agrees: but also says that she hasn’t finished looking for an issue. This poses a problem for Rich Politician Type, who does what he has in the past: bring his problem to Maggie.
Back at the weirdest family reunion ever, Kenny catches up with Dad Guilt while Max and Jake get ready to go. As they head for the car, Dad Guilt tries to hand them a wad of cash for clothes.
Max: No thanks. Don’t need anything from YOU.
Dad Guilt: Well, your other option is borrowing my clothes.
Jake:
Dad Guilt: When you need me — and you will — I’ll be there. I’m sorry, Max.
And reader, Max shakes his hand! It’s a start, is what I’m saying! Anyway, they drive off in Kenny’s terrible car, all ready to try and take down a crime boss. In this, the worst carpool of all time, Skye and Max immediately identify each other as rival alphas, and start bickering accordingly. But their argument is cut short when Kenny slams on the brakes: Teddy’s waiting for them up ahead.
Skye, the only one of them who hasn’t met Teddy yet, tries to get out of the car to go speak to him, but ultimately listens to the scared men she’s been saddled with and waits while Max goes instead. He finds out that Roy is dead, and immediately suggests the obvious: that Teddy join Scotland’s answer to the Avengers. Back in Leith, Skiing Accident looks over the paperwork, finally, while Maggie, driven by Handsome Goon, watches from outside (creepy). And at the apartment block, Yvonne rings Kenny’s sister’s doorbell… only to get tricked by said sister, who walks by, pretending to be a neighbor, and waits until Yvonne gives up to return to her home.
Will Max be able to convince Teddy? Will Yvonne get the info she needs? Will Skiing Accident be able to avoid the wrath of Maggie? We’ll have to wait and see!
