By Couch Baron
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Patrick's turning forty, and the girls set to work making a scrapbook (or "memory book," as they call it) for him; especially notable is how much nicer Theresa is being to him. While selling some of his boxing memorabilia on QVC or an equivalent, Patrick shoots his mouth off once again about how he was robbed in the Reynolds fight, prompting Death Row himself to come to Patrick's house and challenge him to put up or shut up. (Don't think I've ever had occasion to use a literal meaning of that expression before.) Patrick isn't interested, but Omar, the hotshot kid Stacy Keach has been training, gets a shot at the middleweight title when some other fighter gets injured. In order to get the fight, though, Johnny has to beg Barry K., promoter of many big fighters including Reynolds, and when that doesn't work, possibly (this part isn't shown) to promise him that his brother will return to the ring. In any case, after Stacy Keach gets fed up with Omar's cocky attitude, he enlists Patrick's help, and Patrick uses his experience to scare some sense into the kid and get him to take his training seriously. In Atlantic City, Omar fights a super-disciplined fight until he has the heavily-favored champion reeling, but reverts to his cocky ways at the finish and ends up getting knocked out, much to Team Leary's chagrin. It sounds simple, but it's easily the best episode so far. I'm seriously looking forward to week now.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!HA! Okay, the very first shot is better than anything this show has done up until this point, as we open on a close-up of several Lights Leary bobbleheads, with the heads, you know, bobbling. A woman is talking, and when we cut to a normal shot, we see that Patrick is appearing on whatever the sports version of QVC is (which may well be QVC) to hawk some signed merchandise. We see Daniella and Johnny watching from the wings, the latter with a goofy grin on his face, as the woman plugs the bobbleheads and autographed boxing gloves before saying they have a special offer -- the gloves Patrick actually wore in his "second fight with Death Row Reynolds." Ah, so they have more history than that one fight we saw. Good. Patrick, smiling but with a trace of emotion underneath, tells the viewers there are "a lot of blood, sweat, and tears" on the gloves, which might be hard to get off after five years. The woman gives the starting price on the gloves as two grand, which she adds is a steal, although she doesn't clarify which way. She then takes a call from a "Billy from Bay Ridge," who tells the "champ" that he got "jobbed" last time before asking if he's going to fight Reynolds again. Buddy, he's selling bobbleheads. Does he look like he's about to come into a lot of cash? Patrick just smiles and says he's got nothing to prove - he and Reynolds both know who won the fight, "and it wasn't him."
Just then, the woman hears from the control room that the gloves have been bought - for twenty-five grand. And while I guessed who bought them - not too many choices when you think about who Patrick knows with that kind of money to burn - I was still intrigued as to why. While I'm tossing out compliments, I should say that I'm starting to appreciate the work Holt McCallany is doing here. I'm seeing a character that gets off on the extreme compartmentalization of his life almost to the point of sociopathy, which is interesting. I mean, we're two episodes in and there's not one person he's close with to whom he hasn't told at least one significant lie, yet he seems perfectly comfortable with what he's doing, and McCallany is selling that. Plus I guess it makes sense that you'd have a bit of the sociopath in you if you hit people for a living. Anyway, Patrick is understandably shocked, and asks whom the buyer is, but the woman tells him the gloves were bought anonymously before brightly asking the viewers, "So anybody gonna top that?" Honey, you already made your numbers for the month. Sit back and relax.