Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A+ | 72 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Five Easy Corpses
By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 5 | Aired on 02.04.2014
He notes Kendal's change of shirt, immediately reckoning on Danny's bullying being the reason for it before asking Danny where the food he was supposed to get is. Danny tells him he's already "got one bitch" after him and he doesn't need another, but Jean-Baptiste isn't so easily put off as he plops himself down on a backward-facing chair and asks, "Do you mean this when you call me 'bitch'?" Danny smiles that it's just a word, whereupon Jean-Baptiste, with an answering grin, says he prefers sticks and stones, "because I like to break bones." Danny tries to up the menace factor by faux-casually chuckling that Jean-Baptiste shouldn't be talking to him this way, and I bet if he wanted to get Danny really crazy all he'd have to do is insult his dog, but he goes for the owner instead: "A man that just talks is no man." He invites Danny to come at him from twenty-one feet so they can see if his bluster about the rule is founded: "No bullshit; let's do it." So Jean-Baptiste is calling Danny a bully blowhard and is willing to get involved in a confrontation to the death to show he's full of shit -- and Danny of course backs down, saying he's got some groceries to pick up.
So we're all clear on the power structure here as Danny goes to grab the list… AND INSTEAD PICKS UP A SAWED-OFF SHOTGUN AND BLOWS JEAN-BAPTISTE AWAY RIGHT THERE. I mean, maybe I should have expected it in an episode that's gotten redder by the minute, but Jean-Baptiste was a really interesting character and I didn't think the show would sacrifice him so early in the season just to make a point about Danny Crowe, but I sure do like the show's unrelenting guts, and I'm sorry that pun is the last thing you'll ever hear, Jean-Baptiste. Kendal, who was standing next to Danny, covers his Sterling Archer-esque perforated eardrums as Danny hoots and hollers over Jean-Baptiste's bloody corpse before turning to a freaked-out Kendal and warning him he'd better not tell anyone about this. Kendal's slow to answer with his eyes still fixed on his dead protector, so Danny grabs his face and Kendal promises to stay silent. Danny then notes that he's got to get some plastic, and I'll ask again: Did they ever settle on a way to dispose of their dead? Have they perchance discovered the wonders of the slurry pond?
Oh, look, we're in Tennessee with Hot Rod's crew, who are playing cards with Johnny. Incidentally, I failed to note in my recap of this season's second episode that Mr. Racial Performance and his taciturn partner are the brothers, Wood Harris (from The Wire, which to my shame I've still only seen one season of) and Steve Harris (from The Practice, which I never watched. And not to bore you, but if you're interested as a little factoid, getting screeners from the network makes this job much easier in almost every way, but often the last bits of post-production are still temp and the opening credits, which are the easiest resource for figuring out the guest lineup, are yet to be included.) After a couple idle words about the game, Hot Rod asks Johnny if he'd heard that Boyd's got another shipment coming in -- he has it on good authority that he's striking up a connection with "the Mexicans." He wonders if they might as well not hit that one too, and Johnny, in that clipped way of speaking he has that seems like a possibly conscious antithesis of his cousin's drawl, deems that "big balls bold." He does ask, however, who the "good authority" to whom Hot Rod's referring is, and with that, Hot Rod simply replies "Boyd," whereupon everyone at the table points a gun at Johnny. I like the commitment to the setup, Hot Rod, but you're going to see theatricality can court one-upsmanship. For you see, Johnny gets to his feet and asks what Hot Rod spent his share of the take from the last hit on, and Hot Rod replies that he invested it. "It's always best to make your money work for you." Johnny's like, you know what, I did the same thing -- and Hot Rod's henchman swivel and point the guns in his direction. OHHHHHH! Johnny goes on that he didn't even take his cut, just split it among the three gentlemen who are covering Hot Rod right now, and Hot Rod at least reacts to this development honestly: "Well, shit." Hee. And I didn't think I'd be this psyched to see Johnny back in the game, but David Meunier does his best work when Johnny's in direct opposition to Boyd, I think.