Summary
The supporting cast shine in Bad Monkey Episode 6, which sidelines Yancy to explore some of the other on-going subplots.
Yancy spends most of Bad Monkey Episode 6 languishing in jail for reasons we’ll get to in a minute, which is not as disappointing a development as it sounds. There’s a big cast here with multiple developing subplots in several locations, so it turns out that sidelining the protagonist for an episode is quite a good idea.
Contrarians would argue that you could probably take this episode out and the core plot wouldn’t be affected much, which is true but beside the point. Some of the strongest relationship development of the season thus far is in “Yo, Would You Tell Ms. Chase I Still Love Her Like Crazy”, and a couple of the funnier one-liners, though admittedly there hasn’t been a shortage of those.
If nothing else there’s a lot more Michelle Monaghan in this chapter, which is never a bad thing. Let’s start with her.
Bonnie Has A Crisis Of Conscience
In the previous episode, Cody tracked Bonnie down at Yancy’s place. If you’re keeping score, Cody was the student that Bonnie had an affair with when she was still a teacher named Plover Chase, and he’s the reason she’s on the lam from Special Agent Russell. When this has been brought up previously, Bonnie was pretty dismissive about it, claiming that Cody “knew more positions than she did” and that the whole debacle wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
In Bad Monkey Episode 6, she realizes something crucial — it was as bad as it sounded.
Cody is still trying to mold his life to resemble the fantasy in his head. He thinks if he and Bonnie become a proper couple, she will be exonerated. Keith’s voiceover clues us into an important aspect of Bonnie’s mindset: She has always seen her life as a series of problems, and people as a solution to those problems.
Cody is her solution to the problem of aging and becoming less desirable. Now, let me be the first to say that I’m not buying it. Bonnie and Cody — with Yancy’s permission — head out to the Yancy family cabin, where they meet Yancy’s father, Jim, and at one point Bonnie ponders herself in the mirror as if she’s becoming some kind of withered old crone. This doesn’t take when you look like Michelle Monaghan.
Still, the arc is the point. Cody is writing a book about his relationship with Bonnie, and just after she decides to seduce him to regain some of her youthful energy, she flicks through the pages and realizes they’re written in the manner of a literal child. Just like that, the penny drops. What was a bit of fun for Bonnie has ruined Cody’s life. He’s a fantasist with arrested development.
Manatee Meanderings
While Bonnie is at the cabin, she goes swimming in the crystal-clear lake and comes nose-to-nose with the manatee that Jim described to Yancy in Episode 4. This bit of magical realism is a little hard to parse.
Yancy never bought into this story when his father claimed the majestic mammal had talked him into seeing the light and letting go of all of his problems. But Bonnie saw the manatee too and had a similarly revelatory experience. So, is there a manatee in the water at the cabin that helps people realize who they really are? Or is it all just a metaphor?
Answers on a postcard.
Egg and the Dragon Queen
Neville is also sidelined for most of Bad Monkey Episode 6. At the top of the chapter he goes to see Gracie for help, spots her climbing into bed with Egg, and then gives himself away. Egg shoots wildly in his direction and clips him, but Neville is once again able to flee. However, we don’t see him again until the very end.
Egg is fuming about this, partly because he can’t seem to catch Neville whatever he does, and also because his fleeing during foreplay means he has missed his chance with Gracie. I said in my recap of the previous episode that Egg’s relationship with Gracie humanizes him a bit, and I still think we’re heading in the direction of a face turn, especially after seeing how openly contemptuous of Nick and Eve he’s becoming in “Yo, Would You Tell Ms. Chase I Still Love Her Like Crazy”.
Gracie has her own plan. Egg introduces her to Nick and Eve, who’re very full of themselves following news of Yancy’s arrest (more on that in a minute), so she can pitch them on buying the Wendell property from her. Gracie isn’t falling for any of their racist efforts to bamboozle the locals with obscure, Kafkaesque business-speak, and she tells them outright that if they don’t buy the property, bad things will befall them.
Bad Monkey Episode 6 | Image via Apple TV+
Ro’s Crisis
Anyway, let’s get onto Yancy, who is arrested by Mendez after Ro reluctantly sold him out. This is something that Ro spends the entire episode grappling with since he thinks he made the right decision for his husband and his kids but just allowed corruption and injustice to fester because it was easier.
Both Yancy and Rosa are disgusted with Ro, especially since the evidence against Yancy is quite compelling. The smoking gun to exonerate him seems to be proof that Nick and Eve did leave from a private airfield, but there’s no record of that happening, even when Rosa goes to snoop around and has to hide from Claspers and a bunch of drug smugglers he has brought over from Andros (and is hilariously trying to befriend.) She does, though, find Neville hiding in the seaplane.
This leaves Yancy in a tough spot, and even Monte’s legal representation doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough to get him off. Luckily, Ro sees the light and goes to visit the star witness that Mendez coerced into pinning Dr. Israel’s murder on Yancy. He takes the kids with him, which Monte isn’t thrilled about, but he does get the lady to admit that she saw a one-armed man lurking outside Israel’s place as well, and Mendez instructed her to leave that bit out of her statement. This corroborates Yancy’s claim that Nick Stripling is alive and his death was faked.
On the Run — And What Happened to Gracie?
Bad Monkey Episode 6 ends with several characters on the run. Mendez, after once again having his corruption exposed, has fled, and I suspect it’ll be up to Yancy and Ro to track him down.
Bonnie is still on the run too. Despite her having had a personal epiphany, Special Agent Russell, having deduced the location of the cabin from a photograph in Yancy’s house, tracks her down, and she’s forced to flee in Jim’s airboat. I suspect that she’ll veer in Yancy’s direction since she has nowhere else to go if she wants to stay tethered to the plot.
In a last-minute development, Gracie is walking alone in the woods when she suddenly has a bag pulled over her head. Who’s the perpetrator of this kidnapping? I’m leaning towards Egg, on Nick and Eve’s orders, but I also reckon this will be the turning point and Egg will side with Gracie against the two of them.
Read More: Bad Monkey Episode 7 Recap
