Bloodline - S1E13 - Part Thirteen
Previously on Bloodline, ‘Part Twelve’
The final episode of Bloodline’s first season was everything I wanted it to be and more. We pick up exactly where Part Twelve left off. John is sitting on the beach staring dazedly at Danny’s facedown corpse floating in the water. His voiceover tells us that when Danny came home, he felt something was going to go wrong and there was nothing he would be able to do to stop it.
Four Days Later
None of the remaining Rayburn siblings seem to be playing it cool in the days after Danny’s “disappearance.” John is meeting with someone who wants him to run for sheriff, much to John’s surprise. The man tells him that the Rayburn family still means something and despite the timing being so close to Danny’s disappearance, he doesn’t think it will affect John’s chances. Later, as John takes his dog out, he stares dazed after his barking dog.
Kevin is sitting down with the douchecanoe son and his mom, the owners of the marina, discussing his offer. We learn that the developer’s deal was rescinded and they would like to take Kevin up on his offer. Kevin wheels and deals well, tells them his offer will be 10% less, and says he’ll be in touch. As he walks away, one of his clients shows him the day’s catch in the hold of the boat he rented and Kevin just stares with an alarmed look on his face at the fish on ice.
Meg is in New York interviewing for her big city lawyering job. Her rounds of interviews seem to have gone well and everyone is pleased. She stops to talk to the lady who offered her the opportunity, who pours them both a couple of fingers of tequila and Meg stares at the Patron bottle distraught. When her new boss asks her if she doesn’t like tequila, she snaps out of it and says, “Who doesn’t like tequila?” I raised my hand, because who sips warm tequila?
Back To The Beach
Back in present day, John is still staring on the beach when a phone starts ringing. He determines that it is coming from Danny and goes to find his phone in his pocket. This phone puts the Nokia 5110 to shame because he’s been floating for a while now and that flip phone is still ringing like it hasn’t been sitting in the water for an hour. He doesn’t answer the call from Sally and snaps to attention, dragging Danny’s body closer to shore.
John calls Kevin who is passed out on a cot in his office after his coke and liquor bender from the night before. John crawls off and starts to shake and his heart starts pounding so he calls Meg and tells her that he needs her help. She speeds to the rescue and finds him and he tells her that his chest hurts. Then she spys Danny’s body and asks if she should call the police. John says no, so she rushes him to the hospital. After sending John back, they ask her to fill out paperwork and she’s like fuck that and bolts.
Meg leaves the hospital and calls Kevin, waking him from his stupor. He can tell something is wrong from her voice and she tells him she is coming to pick him up. As he’s changing clothes, Belle comes into the office wanting to talk. He does a horrible job of putting her off until later and luckily Meg pulls up giving him an excuse to extricate himself from the conversation.
Back at the hospital we learn that John did not have a heart attack, but had atrial fibrillation and they shocked him straight. The doctor says they are going to run some tests and incoherently John attempts to get up and leave, but that just isn’t happening.
So, There’s A Dead Body…
Meg and Kevin arrive at the beach where Danny is still floating in the water. Are there not tides in Florida? Predators? Just as Kevin and Meg agree to hide the body in the nearby mangroves (since John instructed Meg not to call the police), a group of kayakers show up around the bend and they instead stash the body in Meg’s trunk. Kevin decides to take John’s truck to the hospital and then get rid of Chelsea’s car so it looks like they were never at the beach. He tells Meg to go home.
Kevin stops by the hospital to talk to John. John has been sedated and the nurse is not having any parts of Kevin trying to talk to John. She kicks Kevin out just as John starts to slightly respond to Kevin’s presence, leaving Kevin and Meg to figure this out. Sally arrives at the hospital asking after John and Kevin tries to sneak past her, but he pretty much sucks at discretion so she sees him and is confused as hell as to what is going on. As she should be, because Kevin is horrible at explanations. Also, when did it become night? How long did it take Meg to leave the beach?
Meg is driving home and thinks she hears something banging around in the trunk, so naturally she swerves like a drunk. She gets pulled by a cop who asks for her license and registration and notices that she is upset. She gives him some excuse about John being in the hospital and when he stops to shine his flashlight on her trunk, she jumps out of the car and I am assuming her white privilege keeps her from being shot? While the officer checks her out, it starts pouring rain and she stands there waiting. The office attempts to call her a tow because the treads on her tires are worn, but she convinces him to let her go.
Could Anything Else Go Wrong?
Back at the hospital, John wakes and looks for his phone, which is dead, so he uses Danny’s flip phone to call Meg. This brings us to the scene from earlier in the season where Meg comes in, pours a tequila (Meg’s stare explained), and flips her shit because dead Danny is calling her phone. John asks her where Danny is and she tells him that he’s in the trunk she is currently looking in. Just then, Marco pulls up to check on her.
Sally comes to John’s room at the hospital and asks about Danny (after making sure that John is alright) and John tells her that he can’t help Danny anymore. This is not at all what Sally wants to hear and she leaves. John puts his clothes on and leaves despite the doctor telling him not to.
At Meg’s, Marco puts Meg in her car and gets in to talk to her out of the rain. He starts asking her a million questions about what she’s doing outside in the rain and she makes up a bullshit excuse about putting her luggage in the trunk in the middle of a monsoon for her trip to New York the following afternoon. Marco isn’t a fucking idiot, so he voices his confusion and she flips her shit on him. She yells that she doesn’t have to answer to him and to get out of her fucking car.
We Need A Real Plan
John goes from the hospital to Meg’s where they and Kevin discuss what the hell to do next with Danny. John isn’t pleased that they moved Danny’s body instead of just leaving it where it was, but considering he was busy faking a heart attack and left them in charge, he really needs to pump his brakes a little. Kevin tells John that the reason he killed Danny is not their concern, they just need to figure out what to do next.
After deciding that they need to get rid of him, Meg helpfully reminds John that Lowry wanted to kill Danny, so they put together a plan. They ice Danny down in the hold of the boat (explaining Kevin’s blank stare) while they execute the rest of their cover up. Kevin and John go to Miami to trash Danny’s apartment. Someone wearing a Rayburn House t-shirt watches them as they leave.
Back in the Keys, Meg and John meet up with Sally at the pier that is being dedicated to them and fake a call from Danny (Kevin). At the inn, they all discuss Danny with Sally. John tells her about the dead Scary Guy in Danny’s hotel room. He tells her that the DEA has agreed to let Danny come to the dedication tomorrow before taking him in for questioning. Meg tells John to make sure that Danny wears his seersucker suit.
We see a shot of someone opening the FedEx envelopes and pulling out the money along with old pictures of Danny and the family. There is also a slip of paper that has John Rayburn written on it. I assumed it was Kevin at the time, but I changed my opinion at the end of the episode.
The Plan In Motion
At the pier dedication, we see the Rayburn family, Kevin and John in their seersucker suits, sitting on the stage while Sally gives a speech about how her family keeps her going. After the dedication there is a party and Belle finally confronts Kevin, who can’t avoid her any longer. Evidently that night that he rolled up to her house after Papa Rayburn’s funeral was a reckless night because Kevin shot one past the goalie and she is pregnant. He can’t even deal and walks off to Meg and John.
John leaves the party to take care of Danny’s body. Later he meets up with Meg and Kevin to tell them that he has been taken care of. He tells them to move on with their lives and to leave this behind them. Meg tries to argue, but he tells them to nut up. He tells Meg to go to New York and Kevin to go to Belle and forget about it.
Four Days Later… Again
John is being introduced to the donors that want to see him become sheriff over dinner. After introductions, he starts to tell them about Danny because he knows they have questions. We realize that all of the voiceovers we have heard in the series are from his explanation to these people. He says he doesn’t know where his brother is, but he wishes him the best. John concludes with, “If he went astray, we all bear some of the blame.”
Sally meets with Lenny Potts, Robert’s old detective friend, and apologizes for avoiding him at the funeral. She admits that it was she who told the kids to lie to him about Danny’s injuries. And he asks what he can do to help her now. She asks him to find Danny because she thinks John has given up on him. If by “given up on” you mean blown the fuck up, then yes.
Soon, some fishermen find Danny’s body (or pieces of it, at least) and Marco calls John to tell him the news. We see Sally speeding through traffic and breaking almost all of the traffic laws, to arrive at the beach where they found Danny’s pieces and parts. She runs up to John and has one of her patented “Sissy Spacek Emmy Nomination Worthy” meltdowns in his arms at the news.
We’ve Got Some Questions For You
John and Diane are chatting over coffee when Marco shows up to ask John to come down to the station to answer some questions. At the station, Marco and the DEA agent give John the rundown of what they think happened to Danny based on the evidence they have tracked down (been given on a silver platter). John listens with an excellently played confused face on as they outline their theory.
Danny had been drowned before he was blown up, matching the M.O. of the two immigration victims from John and Marco’s case. They also found all of the drugs that had been stashed at the inn neatly stacked in Danny’s apartment. Danny (Kevin) texted Chelsea telling her that he was taking her car to Miami and would be back in a couple of days. He (John) also called Lowry to set up a meeting and they think that Danny stole the drugs from Lowry to sell on his own in Miami, and Lowry had him killed at their appointed meeting spot. All of this with the Scary Guy’s body in Danny’s hotel room makes them think they have a slam dunk case.
John plays this perfectly, questioning them on the details, acting like he doesn’t believe them, and generally wearing an incredulous expression for the entirety of the explanation. He asks Marco how he knows that Danny was coming to the dedication, and Marco indicates that he was wearing his seersucker suit. Good call, Meg.
One Month Later
Meg is in New York working at the law firm. Her boss brings her to Alec’s office where he seems to have been waiting for her. He indicates that it took her a month to call him, so this must be their first interaction since her relocation.
Belle is preparing dinner for her and Kevin while he complains about the healthy food choices. All signs point to them being happily reconciled and expecting a child. I was very pleased at this outcome for them because I’ve had a soft spot for these two since the beginning.
Sally meets Lenny again and he apologizes for not being able to find Danny sooner. He says he wishes he could have done more and she assures that because he cared enough to try, he did enough. He then tells her that her children are lying to her, and this marks our first season ending cliffie.
John and his family eat dinner on their patio because evidently bugs aren’t a thing that exists in the Keys. They are all discussing his upcoming bid for sheriff and whether or not he should run. During their very normal family dinner conversation, Ben notices a creeper lurking in the shadows and points him out to John who goes over to ask if he can help the lurker. The lurker asks if he is John Rayburn, brother of Danny Rayburn. John indicates that he is, but what does it matter to this kid? This kid is Danny’s son. And we get our second and bigger cliffhanger to end the season.
All in all this season has been a steady ride of drama and emotion. There were just enough twists and turns to keep it interesting without losing anyone. The acting by all parties was superb, except for Janie, she needs a couple more lessons. Every episode built upon the story and tension of the previous episode and the finale was the perfect amount of resolution mixed with question raising. This brings me to my final list of questions for Season One of Bloodline:
- Did Lenny really figure out what happened to Danny? If so, this guy is a master detective.
- Was it Danny’s son that was opening the envelopes and going through the photos?
- Is this show eligible for any Emmy’s? Because Sissy Spacek and Kyle Chandler both deserve some recognition for their roles here.
- Do I really have to wait a whole year for the next season?
