In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
This episode loses a couple of points from me for using the hackneyed flashback format, wherein we see, throughout the episode, Ralph getting clocked in the head by an assailant and kidnapped and then the story told from "58 hours earlier" and "36 hours earlier," etc.
Otherwise, there's a lot of weekly plot and overall story advancement.
Let's start with the Lambs: They're trying to nab a brother duo (one of whom moonlights as Walter White Jr. on Breaking Bad) hitting spots that supposedly ruined their late father, like a sports book. At least they are when Jack isn't late from work from sleeping with Mia and Dixon isn't almost getting his head blown off from sleeping with married women. The storyline intersects with Mia's, who asks the Lambs to look into a slick card player from Rhode Island who's fleecing high rollers from Kansas City. If anyone's going to fleece high rollers at the Savoy, understand, it's going to be the Savoy.
Mia's handling it (with the help of Jack going undercover as a cardplayer) because Vincent's got problems of his own; Rizzo is cleaning out the casino's bank accounts (including the bank loan for the Tumbleweed), partly to send some back home to Chicago and partly to put out on the street to earn some mob loan interest. Rizzo ignores Savino's warnings that he can't continue to do business this way, and tries to intimidate Savino's banker buddy, a move that backfires when the banker calls in the local gangsters (led by a massive Michael Ironside), who tie up Rizzo and Savino, prompting Savino to give up the Tumbleweed in exchange for their lives. Rizzo is less than grateful to Savino, but he's feeling a little more secure in his continued employment by Chicago; he's a made guy, whereas Savino is one-quarter Irish, and as Goodfellas taught us, that means he'll never be made.
Katherine's squeezing Laura for more information than the nickel-and-dime stuff Laura's giving her. Turns out Katherine found out Diane Desmond was working with the feds. Laura assures her of her husband's innocence — but later explicitly asks Vincent if he killed Diane — and Katherine offers protection for Vincent if Laura can provide her with proof that, as suspected, Rizzo had Diane killed.
And Ralph gets captured, and is in the process of freeing himself when Jack saves his bacon, so I guess they're good. At least until their brotherly tension flares up again.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He almost didn't recognize Michael Ironside without nightvision goggles. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Ralph's rolling down the Strip in his truck, blasting old-timey country music (I suppose it would be hard to blast new country in the early '60s). He's smiling like he's out for a late-night drive -- and then he pulls up at the shuttered Vegas Bank and Trust and bangs on the door, and is whacked on the back of the head by person unknown.
You know what that means, right? It's a tale told via flashback! There was once a time that seemed fresh and exciting, right? Sometime when Alias was still on, right?
Anyway, fifty-eight hours earlier, Dixon was doing his best to hit on Yvonne, a plan made more difficult when an angry cuckold with a shotgun bursts in to the office and threatens Dixon for messing with his wife. Ralph is the voice of reason -- and is clearly annoyed with his son -- in calming the man down, getting his fearful wife to tell the poor bastard she loves him. "She just happens to love a lot of other folks, too," says Ralph. How it will help to remind this guy that his wife is apparently the town pump is unclear, but tensions are soon defused and Ralph makes Dixon give the unhappy couple a ride home (and Ralph hangs on to Fred's shotgun, just in case).
Jack's not even at work yet. Jack's not even dressed yet. He's in Mia's bed, lamenting that she has to work on Sunday (despite the fact that he apparently does too). She's already up and getting ready to work, trying to figure out what his angle is because every man has one (memo to Mia: Generally the angle is to accomplish what has just happened here, so it's a little late to start worrying about it).
There's a knock at the door. It's Cota, letting her know (as per instructions) that the high rollers from Kansas City are here, currently losing their shirts in a private game. Cota's no idiot, and he notices Mia doing the open-door-just-enough-to-first-show-my-face-and-then-squeeze-out-so-you-can't-see-inside thing, but he doesn't say a word.
On the casino floor, Savino greets his banker buddy Leo Farwood warmly, but the enthusiasm is not returned. Farwood's angry because the first installment of the loan -- $275,000 -- has already been cleaned out of the bank, and ground hasn't even been broken at the Tumbleweed construction site yet. Savino seems genuinely surprised and promises to look into it. "Don't make me look like a fool," warns Farwood. No, only geniuses get into business with mobsters. Only good things come from that.
Mia checks out the poker action in the private suite. The K.C. guys are regulars, but the game's being hosted by a new guy, Hal Whitford, who Cota tells her had been losing downstairs and so decided to host a private game. When Whitford says he's from Rhode Island, Mia asks if he knows this guy over at the Colonial. Whitford doesn't, making her suspicious because in the history of the United States only ten people have actually been from Rhode Island.
Leaving the game, Mia tells Cota to look into Whitford since she's not buying that a "working stiff" from Rhode Island is handing the K.C. card sharps their asses.
After a shot of Ralph in the back of a car or truck, being driven somewhere, we then flash back to 56 hours , and FINALLY Jack is showing up to work. It took him two hours to get from Mia's room to work? He blames traffic, only no one's buying it, even Dixon (well, especially Dixon) but the discussion doesn't go on very long before Yvonne comes over to tell them that the owner of a club called to ask them to send a deputy over and then the line went dead. Ralph says they should send a deputy "just in case." What? Ralph would make a great 911 dispatcher. "Hold on, the line went dead. Everything must be OK again."
Surprise of surprises, Rizzo already knows about the loan money being gone because he sent half of it home to Chicago and put the rest on the street to earn some of that sweet loan-sharkin' coin. Vincent is apoplectic, but Rizzo shrugs it off, blithely saying they'll just get more money. That's not the way we do things out here! Savino yells at Rizzo, who says, "What way?" and walks away.
Over at the sheriff's office, we learn that the deputy sent over to the sports book hasn't been heard from. It's almost as if it might have been a bad idea to send a lone deputy to a place that was asking for the police to show up BEFORE THE LINE WENT DEAD. Ralph grabs his gun.
Elsewhwere, Laura sashays down an alley and gets into Katherine's call. Katherine notes it has been a while, but Laura's got something new: The business card of A to Z Restaurant Supply, which she claims is a front for Rizzo to launder Vegas money. But Katherine really wants to know about Diane Desmond. Laura doesn't seem to have considered the possibility that it was anything other than a genuine overdose, and is surprised to hear Diane was an informant for the feds. "Men like your husband can make anything look like an accident," says Katherine. Laura insists her husband didn't have anything to do with it, which is true, but it's not like Laura actually knows that. Katherine tells her to help prove it was Rizzo, then, arguing that if the D.A.'s office brings charges first, the feds will back off. This seems to conflict with the feds asserting authority over the local law in literally every movie and television show I've ever seen, but all right.
Ralph and Jack show up at the sports book, which is deserted, apart from the deputy's hat. Soon enough, a couple of gunmen appear, holding the deputy and the owner hostage. Guns are drawn, and the gunmen (one of whom spends time as Walter White Jr. on Breaking Bad) drag the owner into the back while giving up the deputy (but not before whacking him in the back of the head with a gun).
In the back, things rapidly deteriorate as the non-Walter White guy, named Nathan, douses the owner with booze and lights a match, much to his (and Walter White Jr.'s) horror. "Don't act like you don't deserve this," says Nathan, and he sets the guy alight. Yeah, quit being a baby and take your immolation like a man!
The gunmen hightail it out of there (Walter White Jr. limping slightly) just before the Lambs rush in, Ralph using a fire extinguisher to put Monty out and Jack chasing the bad guys. Despite the fact the gunmen had only a few seconds' head start (and one of them limped), Jack loses them almost immediately.
Night. Dirt road. Ralph still unconscious in back of car, but coming to. Then he's chloroformed and dragged somewhere.
Thirty-six hours earlier! At the sheriff's office, Jack has found the criminal record of Nathan Auster, who did time in the Nevada State Pen for a liquor store robbery and recently got out. But the investigation comes to a halt when Jack's girlfriend shows up -- Jack acting ridiculously over-formal towards her, prompting eye-rolling in absolutely everyone -- to give them the heads-up about Hal Whitford because if Whitford's cheating she's worried that someone from the casino might be helping him. So it's another inside job, is it? And then Jack tries to flirt with her and strikes out big time.
Dixon and Ralph interview Nathan's heartbroken mom and discover that the limping accomplice was likely Nathan's younger brother Russ -- Nathan "filled his head with nonsense," says Mom, and that their dad -- who frequented the sports book just robbed by the brothers -- died just a month ago, but they lost him down a bottle long before that.
Savino gives Cota a suitcase of cash to bring to Farwood to cover Tumbleweed work, and Cota cracks wise about how this the first time he's taking cash to a bank. Not bad!
Then Laura shows up, freaked out that the stage manager asked her if she wanted any of Diane's dresses. She peppers a taciturn Vincent with questions about Diane, saying she didn't seem like a drug addict. Vincent says "these people" know how to hide it, and gets a little angry when Laura persists. "You're asking questions you don't want to know the answers to," he almost snarls, and then gets a little too offended when Laura comes right out and asks if he killed Diane. He denies it, but -- when she reminds him that he promised no more lies -- that it's possible some gave her a "hot dose": two parts heroin, one part strychnine. "Maybe it was Rizzo, or maybe it was just bad luck," he says. And that's about all she's getting out of him.
Jack is over at the Savoy, having learned nothing about Hal Whitford, and wondering why Mia even cares. It's because the big fish gambling up there also gamble downstairs, but they won't gamble at all at the Savoy if they feel they're being taken advantage of. So Jack wants to go undercover -- what is it with these Lamb idiots deciding to go undercover? -- and join the card game. Mia's reluctant but softening.
Based on a tip from Mrs. Auster, the Lamb brothers are interviewing a bar owner but he has already been robbed by Nathan and Russ. The bar owner sports a shiner, given to him by Russ, all riled up by Nathan on account of how the bar poisoned their dad, since that's where he used to drink his paycheck away, near the cement factory where he used to work.
Over at the poker game, the current hand has come down to Hal Whitford and Jack, who might as well wear a shirt that reads "DON'T WORRY I'M NOT LAW ENFORCEMENT" for all the casual questioning he's doing. He takes the pot, though, grinning, when his trip tens beat Whitford's aces and eights. Taking it all in is Mia, who looks less than aroused at her boyfriend's poker and investigative prowess.
And back at the office, we discover Clint Auster was fired by the cement factory -- where he'd worked since he was 15 -- for being drunk on the job. Dixon figures it's a moral crusade; they're hitting places they blame for their father's downfall. Ralph doesn't really buy that, and thinks that's just Nathan's pretext to get a more reluctant Russ to help him. With today being the 15th -- payday -- they figure the cement factory might be .
So when the Auster brothers do try to stick up the security officers at the cement factory picking up payroll or however the hell this works, the Lamb brothers are waiting for them. A firefight ensues when Nathan fires first. Russ peels out in the car, leaving his brother behind on the ground. He unwisely tries to raise his shotgun one more time, and Ralph drills him in the chest.
Leo Farwood is out for a drive outside of town with his family when he gets a flat tire, which he realizes was no accident when huge-grinned Johnny Rizzo shows to help and casually drop a few intimate details about Farwood's family, under the guise of being neighborly. Rizzo knows just when to get a little menacing, and instructs Farwood to come to him, not Vincent, with any problems from now on. Sounding a little shaken, Farwood says he'll do that. And hey! Lookie here! The mobsters have a brand-new wheel for Farwood to put on his car. Of course, they could have stayed to help him put it on.
We're getting closer to finding out what's going on with Ralph, who is now groggy and lying at the bottom of a pit or a well because we only have flash back ten hours...
...to the sheriff's office, where Ralph is moping about having killed Nathan, with Jack consoling him by telling him, essentially, that Nathan asked for it, and then the two of them joke about brothers getting their siblings in trouble. They get the news that Russ's car has been found outside Phoenix, which likely means he has fled the state if not the country.
Katherine breezes in, letting Ralph know that she's got new info on Diane Desmond. Her CI thinks she was given a hot dose of heroin, possibly because the mob thought she was working for the feds. Turns out Ralph doesn't know who the CI, which isn't a surprise, but Katherine is also cagey with him on whether Diane was an informant, which kinda is. She thinks there's enough there to get the DA to sign off on some wiretapping of Rizzo, Savino (I think Laura wouldn't be pleased to hear that), the whole crew. If the DA says yes to the wiretap, Katherine says as she heads out, she'll be celebrating with a drink tonight, and she doesn't want to do it alone. Ralph, she can only throw herself at you so many times before she'll leave you alone.
Over at the Savoy, Mia destroys Jack's ego by explaining that Harwood didn't just suddenly start losing, but he must have realized they were on to him and decided to throw the game. But he lost too well and wins too easily, so Mia figures he does have a spotter, and that's why she and Jack enter the hotel room right above the game. There's a guy in there, sticking a kind of periscope into spots on the floor, through which he can see the other players' hands, and relaying the info through a signaling device. He's so preoccupied that he doesn't even notice Mia and Jack come in at first.
So it's back downstairs to the poker game, Mia holding the signaling device behind her back and pressing it randomly, throwing Whitford off his game until he gets up from the table, making it easier for Jack to stop him and whip open his shirt to reveal the receiver.
Over at the sheriff's office now, Jack explicitly explaining the plan for any viewer who hasn't caught on. Whitford admits to having cheated the one time, which is a misdemeanor, so he's not pleased to find out the police confiscated the $150,000 they found in his hotel room safe, which will be held at the Vegas Bank and Trust (which should set off alarm bells for anyone watching at the start of the episode) to be used as evidence in his upcoming trial.
At the Savoy, Savino gets good news via the phone from Farwood: They're opening up the Tumbleweed credit line again. Savino doesn't appear to have any idea of the role Rizzo played in that, and Rizzo doesn't spill the beans here, but he's also not in the mood to listen to Savino's warnings against using the Tumbleweed as his personal piggybank, and he stomps off until it's time to come back for the meeting with Farwood to go over the details.
Katherine may have to hold off on the wiretap celebration drink, since DA Reynolds says he can't go forward on a wiretap without knowing her CI is, arguing he needs to know if they're credible and can stand up in court. Katherine doesn't spill it, but counters that if they don't make a move on Rizzo, the feds will, and she doesn't want "to be pushing papers for a federal prosecutor." Reynolds at least seems impressed with her ambition if frustrated by her ability to keep a secret.
Over at the sheriff's office, Jack tells Ralph that Whitford made bail, and Ralph says he'll bring the cash evidence over to the Bank and Trust on his way to meet Katherine for that drink. Carrying such a huge sum of money alone in his old pickup is a monumentally stupid idea, no?
Anyway, he's delayed by a phone call from Russ Auster. Or maybe he wants to be called Flynn now? Anyway, he warns Ralph that he's coming for him when the time is right. Ralph's not exactly scared by the threat. More saddened. After Russ hangs up, Jack says there wasn't enough time to trace the call. Ralph suggests to look at phone booths near railroad crossings, since there was the sound of a train in the background.
And now we've reached the start of the episode, and realize that Ralph was grinning probably because of the anticipation of the drink with Katherine. Meanwhile, Savino and Rizzo are arriving at the huge mansion where they're supposed to meet Farwood. Savino urges Rizzo to let him do all the talking. After ringing the doorbell, though, they're greeted from behind by a tough-looking crew led by none other than Michael Ironside, who I know these days mainly as the voice of Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell series, and... uh... let's just say Michael Ironside looks like no one's idea of a stealth espionage agent. Anyway, Savino's all, there's some kind of mistake, we're supposed to meet the board of directors. "We are the board of directors," says Ironside. Heh. Farwood strolls out too, a little less fearful than the last time he saw Rizzo. "Neighbor," he says, facetiously.
Back at the sheriff's office, Yvonne relays a report that they found Russ Auster's car, but it turns out to have bought by someone back in Vegas, where for all they know Russ still is. And worse news: Freddie from the bank called to let them know Ralph's empty truck is outside and there's blood on the sidewalk. Jack orders Yvonne to get every deputy back to the office and they're going to start looking at all the nearby railroad crossings.
Ralph, in the pit, hands tied, coughs while someone from up above shovels dirt on him. Still, he manages to work free some sort of sheathed jackknife he's got.
At the sheriff's office, Dixon and Jack are strategizing the search when Mia comes in -- and at what point does Mia start thinking that maybe it's not a great idea for her to be constantly seen going to the sheriff's office? -- and asks if Whitford is still in custody because she found out he ran a similar scam at the Nugget six months ago under an alias. The casino hired a security guy to find him, but he went missing. Jack finally figures that maybe the guy who's out $130,000 and who KNEW WHERE THAT MONEY WAS might have something to do with the disappearance of Ralph, and he remembers Whitford talking about a family ranch in Paradise Valley. He orders all deputies over there, because if Whitford's got Ralph, that's where he'll be. Sure! Because it's always such a smart idea to murder people and bury them at your own home! I mean, the time left in the episode suggests that Jack's right, but come on.
Rizzo and Savino are bound and bloodied and seated in an empty warehouse while the toughest bank board of directors ever glare menacingly at them. "Men like us have been keeping peace in this valley since the first wagon train arrived," says Ironside. Savino tries saying they can work this out so everyone wins, and Ironside (I may just keep calling him Ironside because it's not like his character will have a cooler name) asks if they've ever heard of the Paiute. It was a native American tribe in the area and one time a couple of their "bad apples" raided a homestead, set it ablaze, burned the family alive. "The morning the council was convened, and... you people understand the necessity of a quick response, don't you, Savino?" The message here is, "So, have you ever heard of the Paiute? No? Exactly."
Ironside says the mob has operated with impunity but have overstayed their welcome, which is when the shotguns start getting pumped. Savino tries the "You need us" argument, suggesting that everything the local boys controlled -- mining, ranching, water -- is tapped out, and warns that if they kill Rizzo and Savino, they'll be a footnote to the Paiute.
Ironside's open to suggestions, and Savino offers them a foothold in the future by giving them -- under Rizzo's visible disgust -- the Tumbleweed. And he even offers to run it for them.
Well, now that everybody finally knows it's Whitford, we can see his face as he continues to shovel dirt on Ralph but somehow fails to notice Ralph freeing himself and climbing out of the pit. Maybe Ralph is a Jedi? Nah, then he'd just leap out of the pit. Anyway, he pulls Whitford in for a brief fistfight, but Ralph's too weak and Whitford is about to shoot him when he gets shot from above by Jack, who stands there silhouetted cinematically in the light for about twenty minutes.
Savino and Rizzo are back at the Savoy, with Savino drinking to still being alive and Rizzo sneering at him for surrendering. He's of the opinion that the local boys were bluffing and actually need the mob there, and Savino gets angry: "The Tumbleweed was mine, and it's gone because of you!" he shouts. "It was never yours," says Rizzo, who coldly reminds Savino that he's a quarter Irish and will never be a made guy. Savino knows it's true, but says this town is a gold mine, and Rizzo's ruining it, but Rizzo couldn't care less because he is a made guy, and the only way he's leaving this town is in a bodybag. Foreshadowing! Rizzo leaves, telling Savino to have a good time explaining the debacle to the folks back home.
Over at the hospital where Ralph is recuperating, Jack, Dixon and Katherine show up, Jack mocking the "man in the dress" and Dixon bringing him gossip and cooking magazines since the gift shop was out of Field & Stream plus they're tired of beans. Oh, and there's a tender little moment when Ralph asks Katherine for a rain check on the beer, and she says yes and strokes his shoulder.
And Mia shows up again, this time at the hospital, and confesses that she had been worried about Jack. "You really don't need to sneak out," says Jack, adding Ralph would love to see her. She doesn't think that's a good idea. "Why not? My family doesn't bite," says Jack. I'm fairly certain the entire viewing audience was able to guess Mia's closing response.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Time for the sheriff's office to have a close look at its backup policies. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.