It doesn’t seem like anybody’s really interested in stopping the cuckoo crime spree of Nick and Eve Stripling on Bad Monkey. The duo’s next trick is a show-of-force abduction of Gracie/Dragon Queen, with Eve casually waving a pistol around and Nick cracking wise about his latest felony. (“Who’s got one thumb and can still kidnap the shit out of women?”) All of this just to accept Gracie’s offer from Bad Monkey Episode 6, to sell them land with a deed she forged. Which is a scam on top of their already lengthy list of scams, and typically for Nick and Eve, one with no accountability for them and a ton of personal fallout for Gracie. Her friends on Andros have learned that she’s working with the shady developers disrupting life on the island. And Ya-Ya has discovered how her granddaughter obscured the property theft behind the promise of the respected Obeah magic they practice. And yes, Yancy would maybe be able to stop the Striplings. But he’s too busy getting into gunfights with Mendez the bent detective.
This scene begins with an honest apology from Rogelio for getting Yancy arrested for Izzy O’Peel’s murder. It is nice that they are friends again. And there is a certain amount of the usual enjoyable banter. But by the time Ro picks up a bullet to the leg, and Yancy gets the upper hand and shoots down the dirty cop, the whole sequence becomes another one of these moments where Bad Monkey doesn’t deliver with all of its story padding. It’s unclear whether Mendez was wounded or killed in the shooting. But he’s out of the picture either way, because the flimsy murder charges have been dropped, and Yancy has even been reinstated to his position as a Key West detective. So NOW can he go after the crimewave couple? As Rosa reports, “You have no idea the shit that Neville told me about Nick Stripling.” With that dirt, and the proof of life on Neville’s phone – an armless but very alive Nick chilling in the Bahamas – the FBI can nail them. But in a meeting with Yancy, the feds shut that down. They’re interested in Nick for all the murdering. (They still don’t know about Eve’s psychotic behavior.) But the FBI is not currently interested in extraditing Nick back to the US.
It’s a good spot for Yancy’s favorite expletive. “Ah, fucknuts.”
At least things are going well with Rosa. And the steady chemistry between Natalie Martinez and Vince Vaughn remains a pleasant salve against the sputtering, frustrating storytelling elements of Bad Monkey. With neither Rosa nor Yancy willing to give their connection a name just yet – “Rosa wasn’t even sure if she wanted a relationship,” our narrator chimes in, “but she knew she was happy” – they’re residing in that pleasant kind of place where it’s all midday sex and light jokes about commitment.
Commitment? Well, that’s something Bonnie was just never that good at. Her admittedly awesome fanboat escape from Jim Yancy’s riverine cottage in episode 6 didn’t actually get her very far, but it did give her more time to consider how guilty she feels about all the relationship fails and running from the law. With one last visit to her treasured book collection, Bonnie gives herself up to Johnna Russell, who slaps on the cuffs and prepares to drive the accused sex offender back to Oklahoma. Accountability is something Nick and Eve Stripling regularly shit on. But in a seemingly final adult conversation – it’s the fifth time she tells him goodbye – Yancy convinces Bonnie that being accountable is more lasting than simply feeling special.
With Ya-Ya’s discovery of Dragon Queen’s greedy sleight of hand, she calls her out over the grave of Gracie’s dead mother. (Grandmothers know how to sway an argument in their favor.) “You’re in the middle of your own curse! I sorry you don’t believe. But your magic’s real. And if you don’t get off this path, it will cost you your life.” Tough love from the wise old lady, and given what we know about Nick and Eve – and how they’ve already proven to be unreliable partners – Ya-Ya could very well be right. Dragon Queen longs to become just Gracie again. To depart the island even, and to use the money from the Striplings for a chance at lasting comfort. But the confrontation ends in a fractured moment, an argument on tense pause. Like Bonnie, Dragon Queen is feeling the weight of guilt. But we’ll have to wait and see how far she’s willing to carry it.
As a very alive and very not arrested and now very much a cop again Yancy is still very much after them – even if the feds aren’t allowing him to get any closer – Nick knows he’s gotta do something about it before Eve gets steamed and leaves him. (Or worse.) And so with his wife complaining about his moping habits – getting a “suck a thousand dicks” text from the daughter you left behind in America will put a guy in a mood – Nick does what any small-time hustler worried about next steps would do. He siccs a bunch of gunmen on Yancy, who gather in the red light outside the house in Key West. Yancy and Rosa were already dealing with an unexpected arrival, as Jim appeared with Cody after Bonnie left the kid in her fanboat wake. But this other round of uninvited guests are toting AK’s and a message from Nick and Eve Stripling, who just keep getting away with everything.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
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Publish date : 2024-09-18 12:15:00
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