Summary
The charm is still there, but Bad Monkey Episode 4 gets bogged down in explanatory flashbacks that clarify things we already knew or could have guessed for ourselves.
It really does seem like you can’t tell any story without a few flashbacks these days. I’m skeptical of the general premise, but I’m not entirely opposed to the idea. What I would question about Bad Monkey, though, is why the showrunners thought it necessary to devote almost the entirety of Episode 4 to reiterating things we already knew and filling in blanks that, truthfully, we could have quite easily filled in for ourselves.
It’s too early in the season for this, I think. After the reveal at the end of Episode 3 that Nick and Chris were the same guy, the plot was gathering some real momentum. The first two-thirds of Episode 4 sap some of that, and it isn’t until a couple of interesting present-day developments towards the end that things get back on track.
It’s an odd choice, is all I’m saying.
5 Years Earlier
Anyway, we might as well recount some of what went down here, since it will likely be important later. As mentioned, some of it we already knew and some of it we could have easily guessed, but it’s nice to have a little clarity either way.
The furthest back we go is five years, primarily to show how Nick and Eve met. At the time, she was a delusional budding actress and a shot girl, and he was a struggling single father. Their whirlwind romance and subsequent marriage introduce a couple of ideas that are fleshed out later. One is that the relationship is very one-sided; Eve calls the shots and Nick is a simp. Another is that Eve is nuts.
But we also check in with Yancy during this period. Back then he was still a Miami PD detective. But what’s important is his relationship with Mendez, the crooked cop whose mailbox he trashed in the previous episode. When Yancy called out Mendez for running a grift on the department’s tips helpline, he was transferred to avoid a scandal. They parted ways on very bad terms and Mendez snapped a photograph of a furious Yancy trying to attack him which will come up later.
Eve Is The Real Mastermind
Did I mention that Eve is a psycho? Well, let me state it again to make the point. Eve is absolutely potty.
A good chunk of Bad Monkey Episode 4 is devoted to explaining some of the background details of events we’ve witnessed thus far. In the process, we come to realize, again and again, that Eve was responsible in some capacity for virtually all of them.
We already knew that Nick and Israel were running a scam out of Midwest Medical Mobile. Eve was in on that. When it started to go wrong and legal and financial repercussions were likely, it was Eve who convinced Nick that just lopping off a couple of fingers to fake his death wasn’t going to cut it. It had to be the whole arm.
Israel’s Downfall
Zach Braff in Bad Monkey | Image via Apple TV+
To be fair to Eve, it was Israel who cut off Nick’s arm (though admittedly with Eve’s help.) The event led to a prescription pill addiction which is only exacerbated by having to smash the severed limb to bits to make the idea of it being torn off in a boating accident feasible. By the time Israel hands the chilled arm over to Phinney, he’s a wreck, which matters later since it underscores his decision to confess to Yancy.
Cue more Eve psychopathy. It was she who talked a very reluctant Nick into shooting Phinney when he asked for more money. It was also Eve who talked Nick into getting rid of Israel, which he did shortly before Yancy got there in the previous episode. Eve also floated the idea of Nick killing Caitlin before she becomes a problem, which is the only point in the episode where we see Nick draw a line. It isn’t especially surprising behavior from Eve, who chose her dog as a bridesmaid over Caitlin at their wedding, but it is for Nick since it implies that at some point in the future, he might turn against his crazy beau.
In the aftermath of Israel’s death, Nick is nearly broken and has a very loud argument with Eve about it which is overheard by a local weatherwoman, Heather. Eve shoots her dead, proving her nutcase credentials.
Back to the Present Day
Towards the end of Bad Monkey Episode 4, things finally catch back up to the present day. Crucially, Mendez is now a Miami PD detective and is looking into both Heather’s murder and the death of Israel. This immediately proves problematic when a witness arrives to claim somebody was spotted outside Israel’s place right before he died, and identifies the bystander as Yancy, recognizing him from the photo of him lurching at Mendez when he got transferred — which Mendez has framed on his office wall.
In other news, Yancy and Rosa finally hook up, though admittedly in the morgue, which is a little weird. But this is the first of two positive developments for Yancy. The second is that he figures out, quite by chance, that Nick and Chris are the same person.
Unfortunately, a negative development follows immediately. Nick knocks him out from behind.
The story continues in Bad Monkey Episode 5, where Yancy’s fate is revealed.
