Summary
“Ecotone” adds a lot of tension to Mayor of Kingstown Season 3, with Mike on the cusp of a major personal compromise and an all-out war on the near horizon.
Things are getting a little tense in Mayor of Kingstown. There has been a burgeoning war between the Crips and the Russians – with a sprinkling of the Aryan Brotherhood – developing all throughout Season 3, and it gets closer than ever to open conflict in Episode 6, “Ecotone”.
We saw plenty of tit-for-tat in Episode 5, with the Crips launching an unexpected attack on Konstantin that almost killed Mike and Iris. Despite being warned – or begged, which might be more accurate – by Mike not to retaliate, “Ecotone” nonetheless opens with some goons opening fire on Rhonda’s salon.
Two of the Crips standing guard outside are killed, and so, unfortunately, is Rhonda. Since she’s Bunny’s cousin, Mike knows as soon as he arrives that this isn’t going to go unanswered.
Damage Control
Since the assailants were white, they either belonged to the Russians or the Aryan Brotherhood, but without any way to determine which, Mike moves on two fronts.
First, he calls Kareem and tells him to shift Merle Callahan into solitary, which should give them a little breathing room to figure things out. With Merle out of the way, Mike tells Carney to find out how the Nazis are smuggling the drugs into the prison.
In the meantime, with the police on the cusp of serving Konstantin a warrant, Mike pushes Robert and Kyle to do so bloodlessly. He doesn’t want them to go in guns blazing like usual since he has a mole on the inside – Iris, though he’s playing it down – and further chaos will just escalate the conflict. Evelyn agrees to expedite the warrant.
It’s Not What You Know…
With Kareem quite clearly distracted, Merle is removed from general population but not given a cavity search, which Mike thinks is necessary despite it infringing on his rights (Kareem says there’s no grounds for it.) So, Mike gets Carney and the new guard Jackson – Bunny’s spy on the inside – to do it instead.
As it turns out, investigating Merle in any official capacity results in immediate pushback from his toy guards, who remind Carney who his real boss is.
Merle’s influence is pretty substantial, which is why Mike wants him isolated. But there’s still only so far Kingstown Prison’s so-called authority can go with him. It’s no wonder that Kareem is looking so sheepish all the time.
Iris Is Still Annoying
Before the SWAT team raids the Cavo Club, Mike tips Iris off and advises her to take a convenient lunch break. Of course, not only does she completely ignore this advice, but she also resists arrest and gets elbowed in the nose by Robert.
Mike is, for some reason, annoyed by this, but Kyle explains she was playing her role a little too well, which is fair enough. He reminds Iris, too, that every time he reaches out to warn her of something, she’d do well to listen, since he’s risking exposing them both. Her counter-point – that it would have been pretty suspicious to knock off for lunch right before the cops burst in – is reasonable, but she was still clearly acting out.
This woman’s trouble, I’m telling you.
She also continues to be useful, though, telling Mike that Konstantin is bringing girls over the border that he can traffic to “modeling agencies”, which sounds suitably ominous.
What’s An “Ecotone”?
In case you were wondering about the episode’s title, it comes up when Merle summons Mike for a meeting the following day.
At this point, thanks to Carney and Iris, Mike knows that the drugs are being supplied by the Russians, and taken into the prison by the Aryan Brotherhood through the auto body shop, under the not-so-watchful eye of guards who’re on the take. But Merle still has a use for Mike.
Merle describes Kingstown as an ecotone, a transitional area between two biological communities. Notably, there are species that can survive between two ecosystems, but not many. Predators tend to feed there, and it’s clear that Merle considers himself one of these. Despite his incarceration, he has the negotiation power, since he has the power to bring an uneasy peace to Kingstown.
All it’ll take is Mike agreeing to kill Bunny.
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