Summary
There isn’t a great deal that happens in “Sins of Omission”, but that doesn’t mean it’s an unimportant chapter. On the contrary, this might end up being the point of no return.
There has been quite a lot of death in Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 thus far. The previous episode, for instance, ended with some hired goons from Detroit setting a bunch of Colombians on fire and then getting shot to death, which is pretty extreme, to be fair. Nothing like that happens in Episode 4, “Sins of Omission”, but in hindsight, it’ll probably end up being a more important chapter, the point in the story where several lines were crossed, after which nothing could really be the same.
This is true for almost everyone — for Mike, Ian, Bunny, Evelyn, and all the rest. Virtually the entire cast has a moment here that fundamentally alters their outlook on both what’s going on in Anchor Bay and the surrounding town as a consequence. So, no, there aren’t any deaths, but there are guarantees, explicit and implied, that plenty more deaths will follow.
Consider Mike, for instance. He might start the episode waking up next to Cindy, so that, at least, has worked out okay for him, but beyond that, he’s putting out more fires than even he can manage. The Colombian squat has gone up in flames, two Detroit hitters are dead outside, the sicario Cortez is still on the loose, and Bunny doesn’t seem to be treating the situation with appropriate seriousness. In fact, he doesn’t seem to be treating it with much seriousness at all. The influence of Frank Moses has altered his perspective, and he can’t see the forest for the trees.
Mike tries to compel Bunny and Moses to get the situation under control, and they certainly try. Bunny tasks Raph with taking out Roberto Cruz, the Colombian leader in Anchor Bay, but the attack is interrupted by the guards, and only the Crips are punished for it. It takes Mike really laying out the facts for Bunny to grasp the seriousness. The Cartel is making a major play on Kingstown, and the prison is clearly in on it. As if this wasn’t obvious in Hobbs using Cruz — through Torres — to kill Carney in Episode 2, it’s confirmed when Jackson — who, by the way, is definitely going to die this season, I can just feel it — spots Torres bringing drugs into the prison through the fuelling trucks.
Jackson lets Mike know about this, and it’s not the only bad news he receives about the prison. Cindy also manages to secure a list of the Ad Seg inmates, and when she reads the names out, Merle Callahan’s is there. Mike is rapidly losing his grip on goings-on inside and outside the prison, and it’s beginning to show. Earlier, Bunny had suggested he formulate his own exit strategy, and while he laughed off the idea at the time, maybe it isn’t the worst idea, since we do seem to be building towards the mayor being stripped of his seat.
And Mike’s right to worry about Merle. He’s already ingratiating himself with Kyle, and that’s before Hobbs approaches him in Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 4, and makes their relationship official. If he keeps doing what he’s doing, she’ll ensure that his stay is comfortable. And since she’s already hostile towards Mike, has locked up most of the Crips, and killed his main point of contact in Anchor Bay, his ability to do anything about her scheming is lessening every week.
To be fair, Mike has plenty to worry about outside the prison, too. Someone is harassing Tracy, and while it might just be junkies looking for things to sell, it also might not be. Ian is also off the deep end. After being confronted by Evelyn about the witness who can put him at Morrissey’s, he decides to take matters into his own hands by dropping a brick off a highway bridge while she’s passing underneath. The impact and subsequent crash don’t kill her, but his later claims that he wasn’t trying to don’t hold much water to me. That’s an extremely imprecise way of threatening someone, and so much could have gone wrong that it’s clear he’s willing to kill her, even if he might not have been actively trying to in that instance.
Doesn’t go unnoticed, either. While Evelyn is in the hospital recovering from what turn out to be relatively minor injuries, Mike makes it clear that the attack was almost certainly targeted and that it’d be in her best interests to step away from the case. She refuses, though. Initially, Mike suspects Sawyer, which is understandable, but he has an alibi, so his attention turns to Ian. Ian’s convincingly aggrieved performance only goes to show how much of a liar and manipulator he is. But I think Mike sees through that. Stevie certainly does — later, Ian confesses to him. I suspect he’ll spill the beans to Mike sooner rather than later, but he’s liable to be so angry about everything else by that then he’ll turn Ian into the show’s next major casualty. Either way, not everyone is getting out of this season alive. You can feel it in the air.
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