Bloodline - S1E9 - Part Nine
Previously on Bloodline, ‘Part Eight’
Part Nine opens with a flashback of Sally in her younger years packing her shit and getting on a bus looking quite upset. We flash back to present day and Sally is sitting on the porch, holding Robert’s old sunglasses and reminiscing. The juxtaposition of Part Eight’s ending and this opening make me glad I am not binge watching the season because I feel like the transition from the frantic conversation between John and Kevin at the end of Part Eight would make the opening scenes of Part Nine feel jarring.
John Is On The Case
John pays a visit to the bait shop we saw Danny entering in Part Eight because he and Marco have found the connection of CFM to their human trafficking case. He goes in under the guise of asking for some charter schedules and some bait mackerel. He talks to the man in charge, Lowry, and they exchange marlin pleasantries. I find it hard to believe that John, the sheriff who hails from one of the most popular and well-known families on the island, would be able to pretend like he’s there for any reason other than being Johnny Law.
As John leaves the bait shop, he notices another officer surveilling from his car parked down the street. Upon entering the precinct, he and Marco notice that officer making himself at home at an empty desk. John questions his captain who informs him that the man is from the DEA and needs some desk space. John approaches him about his case and discovers that they are looking at the same people for different reasons.
After some arguing about whose dick is bigger, John and the DEA agent finally agree to help each other out on their respective cases. John identifies CFM as one of Lowry’s men, and that he has also been identified as the man who accepted payment for the transport of one of John’s victims. He also identifies Eric O’Bannon, but we cut away when the DEA agent asks if John can identify any of his known associates.
Danny Is On A Roll
At the inn, we see Danny receiving his daily seafood deliveries and smuggling drugs right under Sally’s nose. He seems to have settled nicely into his role as both the man of the inn and the inside man of the drug trafficking operation. Poor Carlos just kind of stands around nervously rolling that cart of fish bins around wherever Danny directs him.
After John speaks to the DEA agent, he approaches Danny on the dock preparing the boat for the day’s charters. John asks Danny about Eric and Danny lies and says that he doesn’t really speak to Eric anymore, so he doesn’t know how he is or what he’s been up to. John then tells him that Diana was upset at Danny’s behavior on the night he brought John home drunk and Danny acts chastised and says he’ll be mindful of his behavior in the future. Danny is full of shit.
He then receives a call signaling that it is time to take the drugs to the drop off point, so he packs the bricks of whatever it is into a duffel bag and gives it to Carlos to deliver on his way back from taking some guests back to the airport. This whole setup is pretty genius, Danny tells him where to stop for gas and which pump to go to and then some schmuck just pulls up and pops the trunk. Carlos deposits the bag in the trunk and they both roll on with their lives. The only problem with this whole deal is that Carlos is driving the Rayburn Inn van and transporting drugs. Danny is such a prick.
Kevin Throws A Hissy Fit
Kevin leaves the marina for the evening and notices the douchebag son’s Porsche is parked outside. In his infinite wisdom and long path of good decision making, he grabs the baseball bat out of his truck and proceeds to attempt to give the car a good beating. I was really glad he was wincing in pain and unable to continue because I was about two seconds from calling bullshit on his ability to even lift that bat, much less swing it.
Later douchecanoe comes storming into his office ranting about the damage to his car. Kevin yells back the best he can on pain pills washed down with a beer. Douchecanoe threatens to get a restraining order, and Kevin tells him to grow some balls and do his dirty work himself next time. Little does Kevin know that unfortunately this asshole had nothing to do with his beat down.
Danny Tries to Manipulate Sally
Sally and Danny have dinner at a local restaurant and she comments that she likes the way that Danny prepares whatever her meal is better. He starts bragging about his cooking prowess before attempting to persuade her to expand their dining services to the public instead of just guests. Sally tells him no, and reminds him that Robert said no as well. Danny implies that now that she has a say, he thought she’d change her mind. She shut his shit down and tells him that she always had a say and reminds him that she already let him change the menu.
Danny The Chef
The next day, Danny is in the kitchen at the inn when John’s daughter comes in looking for Sally. He waylays her into a fish fileting lesson which was both disgusting and creepy. During the conversation he reveals that John and Diana helped to pay to send him to cooking school. After waving some disgusting mahi skin in her face, Danny gets back to cutting up his fish.
That night over dinner, the newly minted fish filet expert critiques Diana’s cooking skills by telling her mom that there is a bone in her fish and “that’s just lazy technique.” Somehow Diane resists the urge to slap her daughter and it is revealed that Uncle Danny gave her a fish fileting lesson. Diana is not pleased to hear that she’s been spending time with Danny, but the brat’s boyfriend shows up beeping his horn and she runs off before anything else can be said.
John and Diana continue their conversation and he tells her that he talked to Danny this morning and that Danny “gets it.” Diana is still not pleased, and asks whatever happened with Danny and cooking school. John seems irritated and gets up asking if she wants more wine despite the fact that both of them have plenty of wine in their glasses. The angle of the shot of Diana, I really expected her to pull a Cersei Lannister and hold her glass out behind her without looking at the servant pouring her wine.
Meg Suspects Something is Awry
Meg comes for a visit to find Sally sitting on the porch reading bridal magazines and reminiscing on her younger days again. She pulls up a chair and they flip through the magazines, Sally has decided that seersucker suits are all the rage for the men of the wedding and Meg agrees. Does this mean that Danny dies on her wedding day? Speaking of Westeros…
Sally suggests that Danny plan the menu for the wedding and Meg hedges before shifting the discussion to the inn. Sally tells her that Danny has made some changes to the menu and Meg has noticed the increase in food deliveries. She is hesitant to make changes because Papa Rayburn always valued consistency and the changes so soon after his death are not ok with Meg. She says she’ll review it with the accountants but Sally says that if it makes financial decision, she’d like to give Danny this room to grow because he’s a big part of the future of the inn. Maybe the future of it being raided by a SWAT team with drug sniffing dogs.
Danny Further Alienates Diana
Evidently Diana works at a plant nursery, and Danny pays her a visit to apologize for this behavior the night he and John went out drinking. He starts by actually apologizing before turning back into the asshole that we have come to know Danny as by passive aggressively threatening her and telling her not to come in between him and his brother again.
Diana comes home, drinks John’s bourbon, and relays that Danny came to apologize. John thinks this is a good thing until Diana sets him straight by saying, “Not the way Danny does it.” She also called the cooking school and Danny only attended for a semester, so what the hell did they pay for?
John Is Watching You, Danny
Danny gets his daily shipment, and Joe our friendly neighborhood fisherman/drug runner tells him there is something special for him today. It turns out to be an envelope of cash which means Danny needs to make a trip to the post office. He goes and mails off his cash in his usual fashion, only this time John is watching from his truck in the parking lot.
Growing more suspicious, John decides to look up Danny’s criminal history and is surprised (although no one else on Earth is) that Danny has a rap sheet for prescription drug possession. How has he not done this sooner? If I was a cop, I would look everyone up all of the time. I would have the cop equivalent of Google Alerts on my family’s records. John gathers some information from the arrest record, the name Beth Mackey (who bailed him out), and his previous employer which is listed as a restaurant in Miami.
Danny Continues His Creeper Crusade
Danny approaches Meg at the inn as she is going through some paperwork and asks if she has been talking to Sally. He and Meg start to argue about the direction he seems to be taking with the inn, which turns into an argument about sibling privilege. Meg reminds him that they are all co-owners of the inn, so the decisions he makes affect all of them. Danny doesn’t really like what she has to say, so he again passively aggressively threatens her and storms out.
Later, Meg and Kevin discuss Danny and the past. Kevin claims that Danny killed their sister calling it negligent homicide. It is revealed that Meg doesn’t remember what happened to Danny back in the day. She still thinks he got hit by a car because she was so young when it happened. She is shocked to learn that Robert fucked Danny up, Kevin tells her that she was there when it happened. Kevin says that they all just knew the story they were supposed to tell.
Danny is driving around brooding in his truck and listening to the interview tapes. We move on from Kevin’s interview and hear Meg. Meg tells Detective Potts that Danny killed her sister. She tells him that Danny was hit by a car, but that she didn’t see it. When he asks how she knows, she tells him that John told her.
Bienvenidos a Miami
John takes the information gleaned from the arrest record and runs with it. All the way to Miami, where he finds the restaurant is closed. A man comes up to ask if he needs help and tells him that the restaurant is closed because of a fire. John shows the man a photo of Danny and he informs John that he ran the restaurant and that he was the head chef. Kyle Chandler’s look of pure bafflement and disbelief in this scene was epic. He gets a call from Beth Mackey and goes to meet her.
I was hoping that Beth would be bus girl just to give Danny some small shred of sanity, but I’ll be honest that I was more excited that she wasn’t. Beth forces John to prove that he is actually Danny’s brother. He wants to ask her some questions and she tries to evade. After finally convincing her to talk to him, they go downstairs and chat. She tells him that Danny went to jail because he owed a lot of money to a lot of people because of the restaurant.
Beth says that after the fire, Danny went on a bender of cocaine and alcohol and then he just wasn’t himself anymore. When John asks her how he was different, she tells him that Danny started talking to people that weren’t there. It is then finally revealed that he was talking to someone named Sarah in the bathroom, but when Beth came in, there wasn’t anyone there. I assume this means my theory is correct, unless Danny is talking to more than one person who doesn’t exist, which is entirely possible. As a parting gift, Beth reveals that Danny has an apartment in Miami.
Man, Fuck Danny
While John is on his fact-finding mission in Miami, Sally, Meg, and Marco sit outside at the inn drinking wine and chatting. Danny stops by with Chelsea and instantly starts acting fucking weird. He kisses everyone on the face and talks about how attractive Marco is, then starts implying that Meg has secrets. When he goes inside to get glasses for him and Chelsea, Meg follows him under the ruse of getting another bottle of wine.
Meg confronts Danny asking why he’s being such a fucking dick, but eloquently, and he continues to smirk and act coy knowing that he’s fucking with her. She tells him that she will go outside and tell Marco about the affair right now if Danny won’t because she will not live her life afraid of Danny. As she storms back outside with the bottle of wine, Danny stands there with a sardonic grin on his face staring after her.
Danny’s Apartment of Lies
John gets the landlord to let him into Danny’s apartment and he goes in to find a pile of mail on the coffee table. The table is littered with the envelopes we know Danny has been sending from the Keys. John opens one of the FedEx envelopes which technically is addressed to just Rayburn and I’m no law expert, but I think that makes it legal. He dumps the cash out on the table and slumps back on the sofa.
Sally, You Are Perfection
Danny sits on the porch at the inn rolling a joint like they don’t run a business and there aren’t guests walking around all over the place. Sally comes up behind him and he tries to hide it, but she busts him and asks him if he’s going to finish rolling that joint or should she? The first time I watched this I cheered for Sally because I hope to one day be the kind of cool mom who says that to their kids instead of grounding them.
Danny rolls that joint up and then he proceeds to complete something that I didn’t realize was on my bucket list, but now do – getting blazed with Sissy Spacek. Sissy, if you happen to be reading this recap, I only live like an hour away from your place in Charlottesville, so… give me a call and we’ll burn one together. Sorry for that fangirl moment, back to the recap.
Sally tells Danny the story of how she and Robert met, which is vastly different than the Robert approved PG version they’ve been spouting for years. She describes leaving home, not telling her parents, and boarding a bus for Florida to marry him.
This leads us to believe that the flashbacks we’ve been seeing for the entire episode of a young Sally on a bus are of her coming to meet Robert. We learn in the last flashback, however, that she is carrying a picture of her entire family and crying. She’s been clutching her left ring finger in the previous flashbacks, but I assumed it was because she was going to get married, but now we know she is married and running away from her family, not toward her future husband.
Johnny is Going to Get You, Eric
The episode ends with Eric O’Bannon getting pulled over in his van and arrested by two plainclothes officers or deputies, I am unclear on where he is or what kind of law enforcement there even is around these parts. He appears to be drunk when he gets out of the van, so really he deserves this. The fade to credits comes right after John walks into the interrogation room, takes a seat, and says, “Let’s talk about Danny.”
I loved every single thing about this episode. And not only because Sissy Spacek was cool as fuck in it. The show pacing has been pretty steady so far and it is slowly building momentum toward the finale. The showrunners for this are doing an excellent job of building the suspense and making me feel like I am on an amazing roller coaster ride of drama.
A lot of questions were answered in this episode, presuming that Sarah is, in fact, bus girl. We also learned that Danny has been sending the money to himself, which just seems stupid to be honest – I mean, how could you guarantee that the landlord wasn’t going to steal your cash instead of nicely gathering your piled up mail and dumping it in your apartment. But as usual, new questions were raised:
- What is all of that money for?
- Did Danny ever cash any of those paychecks in his glove compartment?
- Is Meg really going to tell Marco about the affair? Is Danny?
- Why does Danny wear Birkenstocks and how bad does he stink?
- When is Kevin going to figure out that it was Danny that fucked him over?
- How is Sally the only person in the family who doesn’t see how twisted Danny is?
- Seriously, Sissy, we don’t even have to smoke up, I just want to be in your flawless presence.
That last one wasn’t a question, but I don’t care. This shit is getting good! Join me later this week for Part Ten.
