Summary
“A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair” manages to inject at least a little bit more tension and mystery into the show.
This recap of The Mosquito Coast season 2, episode 4, “A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair”, contains spoilers.
So, to recap, in Episode 3, Allie stopped Margot and Dina from absconding by sinking his trawler. This seems, on balance, like quite a petty move, but you know what Allie is like. It says a lot that he went home that night, went to bed fully clothed, and slept like a baby.
The Mosquito Coast season 2, episode 4 recap
“A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair” picks up the morning after. Allie is comically smug about having thwarted Margot’s plan, but he also seems to have resigned himself almost immediately to the idea that Margot wants to leave him and will manage to eventually. He just implores her to do it in a way that won’t kill the kids. As we’ve seen this season, especially in the premiere, Margot is prone to impulsive, emotional decision-making, whereas Allie is aggressively logical, more of a computer than a human being.
This leaves Margot fraying with frustration, and she takes a lot of it out on Dina. The key detail here, of course, is that Allie is right, which Margot knows. The other key detail is that a lot of the resentment that Dina has for her father stems from her belief that he continues to coercively control Margot and have things his way, which, in turn, means the kids suffer. But, of course, Dina doesn’t know that they’re actually on the run because of something her mother did, because Allie has continued to keep that from them even now. Don’t get me wrong, Allie is nuts in many ways, but the idea that he doesn’t love Margot seems a little farfetched given the circumstances.
Anyway, Margot has another plan, one that’ll apparently break Allie’s heart, but it’ll require Allie to remain in his workshop for a couple of hours and Dina to keep Adolfo off his boat. Charlie inadvertently solves the workshop problem, as he gets into a scrape with a couple of armed geezers in the forest who’re trying to steal exotic animals, and he wants to take Allie to look at a boxed camera he found attached to a tree. Dina fulfills her end of the bargain by going to watch classic movies in a cave with Adolfo, so Margot has the time she needs to use the boat’s satellite phone to try and exchange Allie to the authorities for immunity. It doesn’t take, though, since at this stage, Allie himself isn’t enough. Her master plan falls apart at the first hurdle.
Elsewhere we get two brief scenes of what one assumes is set up for later. In the first, Ridley and Isela argue about first the trawler and then Allie, particularly as regards all the trouble that seems to follow him and the fact that a particularly persistent gringo — more on him in a minute — is asking questions about him. Isela explains to Ridley, though, that they “need” Allie, though for what remains to be seen.
And yes, William Lee continues his pursuit. Here, he finds some new employment with another presumably unsavory type named Guillermo Bautista (Daniel Raymont). That seems like a match made in heaven — and one that can’t possibly benefit the Fox family.
You can stream The Mosquito Coast season 2, episode 4, “A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair” exclusively on Apple TV+.
