Episode Report Card Daniel: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Putting up with the Jonesy
By Daniel | Season 1 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.20.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Due to Savino's men's idiotic policy of burying hit jobs about two inches deep in farmland (i.e. ground that is dug up many times over), Cornaro and his bodyguard are found, sending the law and the mob into a tizzy. Milwaukee's not at all pleased, and they dispatch Jones to quirkily assassinate as many people as possible, while Johnny Rizzo and Angelo pay a visit from Chicago to sort the mess out. Their solution involves getting rid of Savino. Not that they're going to tell him that. They are going to tell him, however, that he's done fantasizing about the Tumbleweed.
Jones takes out Borelli and a witness, making Mayor Bennett apoplectic, because how can a law-and-order mayor win the looming election when bodies are cropping up all over the place? Not my problem, says Lamb.
What is his problem, is keeping more bodies from piling up. Savino naturally is no help with information as to exactly who is getting revenge from Cornaro, so Lamb stations his men all over the casino emptying it of its customers and sending Jack back a few spaces on the Sleep With Mia Rizzo board game. And after Jones still almost gets to Savino, Ralph decides to look after Savino personally, and takes him out to his ranch for some good ol' fashioned physical labor and male bonding. But all Jones has to do is place a phone call to the sheriff's office to find out where Savino is stashed, and he gets reinforcements and heads out to the ranch to take Savino down.
Lamb and Savino fight off the invasion, which each saving the other's life at one point, and Lamb manages to arrest Jones. With their best guy taken out, Milwaukee's talking truce. Angelo says he has to give up the Tumbleweed — and Savino himself, so he's driven to a deserted area and given a shovel to dig his own grave.
Not that I thought Savino was ever going to die, but I was still surprised when Johnny Rizzo shoots Angelo in the head and informing Savino that he works for Johnny Rizzo now. The Tumbleweed is still a go. As for Milwaukee? Johnny Rizzo is basically, "Fuck ‘em. I mean, it's Milwaukee."
The election, such an important plot last week, is reduced to bookends this week. Grady — suddenly the idealistic naïf again — is concerned that their "Bennett = dirty commie"ad campaign is a little less than above-board. But he wins, because of course he does.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Pretty soon Jack and Savino are going to be playing golf together. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Yes, it's Vegas in the '60s, but does that mean we need to hear lounge music all the time? Even here, when a farmer and his son are trundling through the cornfield on a tractor? They stop at a barren patch, with Pa knowledgably chalking it up to a "diseased prairie dog den," and he tells his son to go dig it up. And of course, two scoops with the shovel and Farmer Junior has uncovered a hand. Like anyone in that situation would do, they turn to glare at the Vegas skyline in the distance. Damn you, Vegas! How many lives will you ruin with your gaudy march into degradation and sin?
Over at the Savoy, Savino's having dinner with Laura and Red. Actually, it seems like breakfast, what with the newspaper and all, but there's wine on the table. Well, maybe Savino likes a nice Barolo with breakfast. He's not happy with the polls that suggest Grady and Bennett are neck and neck for mayor. Fortunately, Red has spoken to their "friend" bringing in the voting machines. Laura arches an eyebrow and Savino explains things are a little touchy in Cook County.
Speaking of touchy, Grady comes in, unhappy with the Bennett-equals-Stalin pamphlet being distributed. "I didn't agree to this type of campaign," he says, apparently shocked that the mobster is resorting to underhanded methods to win. Plus voters like Bennett's tough-on-crime stance. Wait, is his problem that the Red Scare pamphlet will sway people in Bennett's favor? Laura takes about a boxing match that Vincent took her to in which the underdog came out swinging and ... look, whatever, Grady is mollified. "The election's in two days. Let's try to keep this above-board," he warns the MAJOR FIGURE IN THE CHICAGO MOB, before leaving, and we learn that Laura's got skillz, because Vincent never took her any bout.
Over at the cornfield, our heroes are examining the bodies of Davey Cornaro and his bodyguard. "If Milwaukee hears about this, every thug in Wisconsin's going to be on the next plane to get his pound of flesh," says Lamb, and then the farmer stomps into the crime scene to complain about the corpses throwing off his ph balance or whatever.
Over at the airport, sheriff's deputies are already screening incoming travelers against pictures of known gangsters. It's hard to imagine how such a crack system could fail to thwart gangsters. Oh, here's a way -- with an easily forged ID that says "Lyle Plimpton" of Las Vegas. Weirdly, we don't get to see his face, so the big reveal can be that it is of course Jones returning to the city. I mean, we hear his voice, and any viewer who would know who Jones is would recognize his distinct voice and manner of speaking. The deputy asks what his occupation is. "Wholesale butchery," says Jones, grimly, and he's on his way. The deputy does not say, "Wait, why are you saying it all weird? Is it a euphemism? Are you going to kill a bunch of people?"