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\n Merle Callahan\u2019s escape from prison and rampage in Kingstown rattles everyone, but it\u2019s Mike who has the most significant \u201creckoning\u201d coming his way.
\n Photo: Jeremy Parsons\/Paramount+\n <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been waiting all season for a Mayor of Kingstown episode like this week\u2019s \u201cBelleville.\u201d Whatever this show\u2019s flaws, it has always proved capable of delivering \u2014 even if only once or twice a year \u2014 a taut, tense episode where some crisis unifies the action and propels the story. And that\u2019s what we get here: an electric 40 minutes (only 40 minutes!) in which Merle Callahan\u2019s escape rattles all of Kingstown.<\/p>\n
One small detail in \u201cBelleville\u201d that means a lot: the alarm that blares from the Kingstown prison, heard across the city, warning everyone to be wary. Even Sarah at the diner reflexively reaches for the gun under her counter when she hears the siren. Right from the start of the episode (or at least after the cold open), nearly all of the characters are connected by a mutual concern.<\/p>\n
It matters, too, where we hear the escape alert. Merle himself gets annoyed by it, wailing in the background when he drops by Kingstown\u2019s Aryan HQ. He doesn\u2019t stay there long \u2014 especially since he knows the Kingstown cops are well aware of where the Aryans hang out. But Merle does feel obliged to teach a lesson to Todd, the guy running the gang on the outside, who has been bending over backward to accommodate Mike. His punishment? The arsonist Pete McDonough, who escaped alongside Merle, sets Todd on fire.<\/p>\n
We also hear the alarm at the prison, where Warden Nina Hobbs is, understandably, frazzled. The previous night, she was threatened in her own home by the Colombian hit man Cortez. Then she comes into work and finds that her Colombian intermediary, David Torres, has called in sick and that the guards she thought she had under tight control have let one of her most incorrigible inmates slip by. She has little patience left when Mike shows up and offers a helping hand, saying, \u201cI\u2019m not your enemy, I\u2019m your future.\u201d She sighs and replies that the future doesn\u2019t exist. All she cares about is getting through today.<\/p>\n
This day won\u2019t be easy for anyone. The breakout removes Nina\u2019s one point of leverage with her new Kingstown neighbors: that she\u2019s good at running prisons. She was already unpopular with Mike and his buddies. Now she looks weak, to boot.<\/p>\n
Instead, it\u2019s the KPD that reasserts dominance by rolling into Nina\u2019s facility and questioning the Aryans. The racist gang\u2019s spokesman gets cocky, calling Ian\u2019s Black partner Stevie \u201cboy\u201d and baiting him into taking \u201ca crack at the Lord\u2019s chosen.\u201d Stevie, though, promptly beats this bigot\u2019s ass, while noting that the Aryans don\u2019t fight so well one-on-one. They need to swarm.<\/p>\n
And this is precisely the danger Kingstown is facing with Merle on the loose and his minions ready to mobilize. Ian and Stevie\u2019s triumph at the prison aside, they and Mike know that if they don\u2019t find Merle quickly, something awful will happen \u2014 or at least more awful than Todd getting toasted. A reasonable escapee would flee to Canada. But Merle is a stubborn ideologue, which is why as soon as Mike finds out he\u2019s escaped, he calls his secretary and tells her to leave.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right to do so. When he drops by the office later, he finds it trashed and covered in Nazi graffiti. Before he can call in the cops to get a crime-scene tech on the case, he gets a call from Ian, who says that the firebug Pete has set the old McLusky family home ablaze. Pete\u2019s still there, too, waiting to give Mike a message, saying that Merle is going to \u201creckon\u201d with Mike, but is \u201cgonna make you hurt first.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll get to the nature of that hurt in a moment, but first, there is one knock against this episode. I said that it\u2019s tight and focused, which is mostly true. But before the siren sounds across Kingstown, we do get a moment with Bunny, who is being visited by Frank when Mike stops in to see him. Mike and Bunny have had it with Frank\u2019s disingenuous promise to \u201cgo biblical\u201d on Bunny\u2019s would-be killers, and so amid all the Merle-related chaos of the day, Mike finds time to threaten Frank\u2019s mole, Lamar. Later in the episode, Lamar proves his loyalty to the Crips by gunning down one of the Detroiters.<\/p>\n
The Detroit mob\u2019s duplicity in Kingstown is a major part of this season\u2019s story, so it makes sense that the writers would want to check in with Frank and LJ. But it does slow the episode\u2019s momentum a bit to have Mike involved with the Frank story line. He has more important matters to attend to.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, perhaps the Detroit distraction is meant to add an extra note of tragedy to what happens at the end of \u201cBelleville.\u201d The title refers to the town in Ohio where Kyle\u2019s wife, Tracy, and their baby have been hiding out. Merle \u2014 who can \u201cwalk through walls,\u201d as he warned Kyle last week \u2014 finds Tracy with no problem and then calls Kyle in jail to let him know where he is.<\/p>\n
What follows is one of the best scenes in the series for Nishi Munshi as Tracy, who was underused as a character during her run, but who always added a righteous jolt whenever she did appear. I liked Tracy a lot. She saw through everyone\u2019s bullshit \u2014 Mike\u2019s especially \u2014 but also cared enough about the McLusky boys to try and make a go of their messed-up Kingstown life.<\/p>\n
The past tense in the preceding paragraph is no typo. Although we don\u2019t see Merle kill Tracy \u2014 and though she pleads her case passionately to him \u2014 we do hear the gunshot. (We also hear a baby crying, so we know he didn\u2019t kill little Mitch.) Before the murder, Merle says, \u201cYou know who I\u2019m punishing, and you know he deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is a dark, dark ending to an intense episode, and even though the outcome is dreadful, it does feel earned. It hits hard, especially as it comes after weeks of Mike blundering along, while his closest friends and relatives have been wondering why they always follow his lead. Mike has fucked around and \u2026 well, you know how the rest of that goes.<\/p>\n
There is a brief coda to this episode, set days later, after Kyle has tried to kill himself. Ian tries to reassure Mike that Kyle will survive because he knows his son needs him. Then Mike echoes what Nina said earlier: \u201cAll we do is survive it.\u201d But I\u2019m not even sure that\u2019s true anymore.<\/p>\n
\u2022 By the way, there is a \u201cBellville\u201d in Ohio, spelled without the e, but the best-known \u201cBelleville\u201d in the U.S. is in Illinois. (It\u2019s where Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy met and founded Uncle Tupelo<\/a>!) I\u2019m going to assume Belleville, Ohio, is a fictional town. Or a misspelled one.<\/p>\n \u2022 It\u2019s time for our weekly \u201cHow did this show sideline Cindy?\u201d report! In this episode, she gets one meaningful scene, when Nina questions her about Merle\u2019s behavior in Ad-Seg and then warns her to avoid manipulative men. \u201cIf you ever step out of your prescribed role \u2014 ever \u2014 you\u2019re in for a world of hurt,\u201d Nina says. So it\u2019s really more of a Nina scene than a Cindy scene. Hope you get more to do next week, Tony-winning actress Laura Benanti!<\/p>\n \u2022 I don\u2019t know why, but I found it incredibly charming that when Mike brings Bunny some Dairy Queen, a delighted Bunny reacts with, \u201cYou hit the Q?!\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 This episode is so short and (mostly) to the point that Ian gassing Robert with car-exhaust fumes last week goes completely unmentioned. There\u2019s one ominous shot of Robert\u2019s garage early on, but I guess no one has found the body yet.<\/p>\n \u2022 Even though I complained about the pace-disrupting Detroit mob scenes in this episode, I did enjoy getting another world-weary conversation between Frank and LJ, who reminisce about seeing Freddie Hubbard in concert in Rochester 40 years ago and marvel at how long they\u2019ve been in the game. \u201cI think we need easier times, Frank,\u201d LJ finally says. \u201cThere\u2019s got to be a finish line.\u201d Well, there are two episodes left this season, so \u2026<\/p>\n VULTURE NEWSLETTER<\/p>\n Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n