In last week’s Mayor of Kingstown recap, I mentioned the show’s high-profile new cast members: Lennie James! Laura Benanti! Edie frickin’ Falco! But I seem to have missed somebody important — someone who may be lower-profile as an actor, but who, so far, is a very big deal as a season-four character. Say hello, everybody, to Derek Rivera.
Rivera’s character hasn’t been officially named in the show yet, but according to the closing credits, he’s playing Cortez, a hitman. We met Cortez in last week’s “Coming ‘Round the Mountain,” when he took shots at Bunny’s caravan and was chased down by the KPD. At the time, I wondered if he might be working with the newcomer Frank Moses, who had only appeared in one scene and hadn’t made any intentions known. By the end of this week’s “Promises to Keep,” it’s pretty clear this ice-cold young killer is allied with the Colombians. But we know nothing else about him, because he refuses to say a word to the cops. We just know he’s dangerous and that he has an agenda. None of our regular Kingstowners is safe.
This is not to say, by the way, that Cortez is definitively not working for Frank. We get multiple scenes with Mr. Moses this week, and while he very earnestly explains his Kingstown plans, he remains a bit of a mystery. He’s a fascinating mystery, though, thanks to how commanding Lennie James is, in every minute he’s on-screen.
Here’s what we know about Frank Moses: He’s from the Detroit mob, and while anyone who knows anything about organized crime is aware that Frank is one of the baddest of the bad guys, he still walks around freely, because he has legitimate business interests and he keeps his distance from what his employees are doing. His team has always been friendly with Bunny’s team, but now that Bunny — with “Mayor” Mike McLusky’s help — has kicked the Russians out of Kingstown and marginalized the Aryans, the area has become an attractive target for out-of-towners. Frank wants to help Bunny maintain control of it.
The nature of this arrangement is kept fairly vague, but it involves the train yards, which Frank owns, and uses to ship dope. And it involves Mike, whether Mike likes it or not.
The scene where Frank introduces himself to Mike is this episode’s highlight (and this is, overall, a very good episode). Mike tries to ease the initial tension with a joke: “Coffee? Water? They’re both flammable.” Then he puts on the humble act, asking if Frank has someone in prison, insisting that’s the only place where he has any real pull in this town, which is a lie in so many ways. So Frank makes his demands simple, telling Mike that all he really needs is for Mike to instruct his cop lackeys to look the other way whenever the Detroit folks start snuffing out Bunny’s rivals.
I loved the overall flavor of the conversation in this scene, with Frank comparing himself to a closer in baseball, finishing what Mike started with the Russians. But I have to be honest: One of the things I enjoy most about Mayor of Kingstown — even though I don’t think I’m supposed to — is seeing Mike absolutely botch his unofficial, unpaid job. And after his first meeting with Frank, I think our protagonist is about to blow it again.
I do think Mike is right to be wary of Frank, who almost certainly has secrets he’s not sharing with his new partners in Kingstown. It is extremely suspicious, for example, that Frank is so quick to drop his suggested piece of Bunny’s business from 30 percent to 20 percent. But I also believe Frank has a better handle on business than Mike does. If I had to trust one of these two to keep the peace in the city, I’d pick the Detroiter. So I can’t wait for the moment when Mike messes everything up by trying to wrest back control.
In the meantime, we can continue to enjoy the ongoing ramifications of Mike’s most recent failure. It’s funny to hear Mike give Bunny a tentative green light to work with Frank while reminding him that protecting their own people takes priority. (“All that matters,” Mike says.) Meanwhile, Kyle McLusky is bruised and battered in the prison’s “Administrative Segregation” block, being catered to and courted by the racist gang-leader Merle, the person Mike most wants his brother to avoid.
Predictably, Mike responds to Kyle’s beating by meddling further. And predictably, his intervention only makes things worse. In exchange for letting Frank make his case for working in Kingstown, Mike asks Bunny to retaliate against the inmate who clobbered Kyle. So Raphael has the man shanked in the shower, which has two effects:
1. It impresses Merle to see cons going out of their way to protect an ex-cop, which likely only strengthens Merle’s resolve to woo Kyle to the Aryan side.
2. It infuriates Nina Hobbs, who tells her right-hand man David Torres (Clayton Cardenas), “McLusky pulls no fucking strings in my prison.”
The new warden is as looming a presence in this episode as Frank Moses is; and just as Lennie James gives his scenes an entertaining pop, so Edie Falco makes every one of her moments count. She, too, has a gripping scene opposite Jeremy Renner, in which Mike actively threatens Nina, saying, “Anything that happens to my brother in your prison, I’ll make sure happens to you.” She seems completely — chillingly — unfazed. When Mike reminds her that she promised to keep Kyle safe, she counters, “I told you I would keep him alive. Is he?”
Nina decides that her best play here is to “reassign” Carney. (“Should’ve done it day one. Little man doesn’t know where his bread is buttered.”) What does “reassign” mean? Well, after Nina gives this order to Torres, we see Torres speaking Spanish to one of the Colombian inmates, which rattles Carney so much that he feels the need to warn Nina. Turns out he’s warning the wrong person. Later that night, after making dinner for his invalid father, Carney is heading out the door when he’s greeted by Cortez (hello again, Cortez!) and executed.
Does this mean that Torres is in league with the Colombians? Does this mean Nina is? I should’ve learned, after multiple years of watching Mayor of Kingstown, not to assume anything about who’s actually working for whom or why. But I will note this: When Nina checks her cell phone earlier in this episode, she has a lot of messages from Switzerland … perhaps from some bank. Once again, Mike has no idea who his enemies really are.
Solitary Confinement
• I was excited to see Laura Benanti (a longtime favorite of mine) on the show last week, but after her scenes this week as new Kingstown prison guard Cindy Stephens, I’m mildly concerned about Mayor of Kingstown’s plans for the character. First, we see her getting overwhelmed by her assignment in Ad Seg, needing the injured and addled Kyle to tell her to radio for backup when an inmate stabs himself in the neck. Then we see her having a drink with Mike, who all too easily persuades her to be on call for him when she’s working. I hope that Cindy won’t end up being some sap.
• Mayor of Kingstown doesn’t do as badly by its female characters as some other Taylor Sheridan-produced shows. (Yellowstone? Ugh. Landman? UGH.) But the women do tend to be a little one-dimensional, and often don’t get to play as much of a role in the story as they could. I thought about that during this week’s requisite scene with Mike’s secretary Rebecca (Nichole Galicia), who is very upset to hear that Frank Moses is hanging around. (Rebecca: “You don’t pay me enough for Motor City. … That man’s murderous.” Mike: “Who isn’t in this fucking town?”) Mike gives her a raise and calls her “priceless.” That’s great! So can she get her own storyline, maybe?
• Kyle’s wife, Tracy McLusky, does remain a relatively complex character, thank goodness. I appreciate that she’s the voice of reason when it comes to her husband’s predicament, urging him to go public with what he knows about Robert (and also to go to the prison infirmary, for goodness sake). But I also appreciate that she understands Kyle’s (and Mike’s) reasoning for his silence: that if he spills, Kingstown as a whole will fall into chaos. She just doesn’t buy it. When Mike says Kyle’s doing the right thing and adds, “I need you to believe that,” she says, “I don’t.” (Mike: “Can you fake it?”)
• As long as I’m doing a State of the Kingstown Ladies address, I should mention ADA Evelyn Foley, who may not be around much longer. Last week, Ian seemed to be nudging Robert into taking her off the board. This week, we see Ian hiding out on a bridge, surreptitiously tracking the timing of Evelyn’s daily drive. Uh-oh.