Summary
The Westies feels a little more expansive in “The Starship”, giving characters like Keenan a bit more space to complicate the overarching plot further.
The Westies is heating up, at least if you measure things by gunfights and dead bodies. But in Episode 3, it also slows down and evens out its focus a little, paying more attention to characters like Keenan, finding a way to fold Bridget’s predicament into the main plot, and humanising Mickey, even if I can’t quite see what the upsides of his continued presence in the gang are, especially given how many potential downsides he offers.
What’s also emerging is a kind of episodic mission-of-the-week structure. In the premiere, it was silencing the union boss; in the second episode, it was dealing with Vinnie’s hand (and other body parts); here in “The Starship,” it’s finding a way to free Mickey from John Gotti’s captivity before he’s either tortured to death or spills the beans about what happened to Vinnie.
Mickey is supposed to be a ticking-clock device, but he’s so hilariously tough that he ends up being a recurring gag, with Gotti throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him to force a confession and getting nothing but taunts in return. The real meat of the hour is in everything else, all the ways that the Irish rally to save him, which involves finally meeting Big Paul, another side quest, and that rocket launcher I said would be relevant.
It’s Big Paul who gives the Westies something to do. There’s a disco in Jackson Heights called the Starship, and in its basement, some Colombians are running a drug trafficking operation against the mob’s wishes. It becomes Sweeney’s job, and thus Jimmy and the crew’s, to shut that operation down by killing all the Colombians. If they pull it off, Big Paul might be inclined to give Gotti a call and tell him to hand Mickey back before he’s pulverised.
The club scenes are fun. It’s a nice excuse for Bridget to get dolled up and enter the main plot, and the sense of camaraderie that emerges throughout this episode helps to make all of the characters a bit more amenable to the audience. If we see how much they care about Mickey, it makes us care a bit more, too, especially given that he’s such a self-destructive live wire. A big fight, started by Pat, is also a bit Peaky Blinders-coded, but that’s probably not a comparison that The Westies should be looking to invoke just yet.
While all this is going on in Episode 3, things are getting more complicated in the background on account of the cop that Pat killed, which has reached Polk’s desk. This is a problem, since she immediately sees through the frame-up and tasks Keenan with figuring out what really went down. Since he’s taking payoffs from Sweeney, and it’s obvious Sweeney’s men were responsible for killing the cop and trying to frame Vinnie, Keenan could find himself nabbed as a conspirator in the very RICO case he’s helping to investigate.
With this in mind, Keenan starts conducting his own investigation, which leads him to Danny and the truth of the matter, which is that Pat was responsible. This news he takes to Sweeney and leverages for Danny’s protection. If he gets rid of Pat, then Sweeney agrees to stop giving Danny errands. It’s a win-win for everyone except Pat.
His fate comes later, though, since the Colombians need dealing with in the meantime. For this, Bridget steals Brendan’s rocket launcher from the docks, and with its help, Jimmy and the others are able to take out all of the Colombians and steal a heavy satchel of their product. If they’re going to risk their lives, they might as well make a few dollars on the side. It’s enough to convince Big Paul to call Gotti off, so Mickey makes it home in one piece.
Pat is less fortunate, though, and “The Starship” ends with Keenan suffocating him in the street. Since it’s highly likely that Jimmy will think Gotti was responsible for this, it’s very probable that the war between the Irish and the Italians is going to heat up rather rapidly. And will Sweeney even keep his promise to Keenan? We’ll have to wait and see about that.
