Bloodline - S2E2 - Part 15
Previously on Bloodline, “Part 14”
This second episode of the sophomore season of Bloodline really stepped it up in terms of show running. This series has always had many layers to peel back and understand, but the underlying web of interconnected story lines brings to mind the first season of True Detective. Small clues laid out for plot development last season are now weaving into the larger storyline in the current season.
Meg The Lush
Meg seems to be taking her long weekend off in stride by checking the mail with both a beer and her phone. Can’t fault her much, this is how I would check the mail if the neighbors wouldn’t talk. Alec comes for a visit and she starts off raging bitch and quickly amends to wanton lover. John soon calls and demands that she come back home to the Keys as a case from her past seems to be tripping him up in the present. After much groaning and complaining, she agrees and returns home.
Back in the Keys, Meg digs into the case she helped Carlos, an employee at the inn, rectify last season. During the course of the trial the witness recanted his testimony and the charges were dropped. Meg was told her it was her excellent cross examination skills, but in reality the witness was either threatened or bribed to shut up. She talks to Carlos about the case after tracking him down and he agrees to talk to John and get things sorted out.
Kevin the Cokehead
Still attempting to finance his big mixed-use marina plan, Kevin is still snorting coke and generally being twitchy. His wife talks him up to a client in her boutique who is a real estate investor and lines up a sit down. When Kevin goes to visit this man’s extremely plush yacht he is quickly brought down a peg when the man starts asking him normal start-up business-related questions and Kevin is baffled by all of them. He retires to the restroom to do more lines of coke before a guy busts in to join him and asks if Kevin can sell him some more. Kevin initially turns him down, but thoughtfully contemplates the situation.
Kevin’s right hand man, Jake, visits him back at the marina to quit and reveals that he hasn’t been paid in a while and needs to feed his family. Kevin attempts to get him to stay, promising to pay him all of the money he is owed, but Jake respectfully declines and Kevin revisits the coke dealing idea. After lining up a sale, he meets the buyer in a diner and surprisingly deftly handles his first major drug deal. I can’t help but assume that Kevin is next on the Rayburn Kill List at this point.
John the Sheriff-To-Be
John starts the episode telling Diana that he definitely wants to run for sheriff. He spends the rest of the episode proving why he should probably not be elected sheriff. To John’s credit, he’s trying to hold together a family unraveling at the seams while simultaneously heading off the investigation that he engineered to point directly at Wayne Lowry who now has him by the balls.
After his meeting with Lowry, during which Danny once again proved how much of a manipulator he really was, John realizes that he has no choice but to make the investigation into Lowry go away. A tall order now that the feds are involved, but if anyone can handle it, John can. He might have another heart attack, but he’ll go down fighting. To further complicate the situation, Marco is a dog with a bone in this investigation and he’s not backing off anytime soon.
John and Diana also meet with a campaign consultant now that he’s officially decided to run for sheriff, and this guy quickly points out that he really isn’t the best candidate, which is why he needs a campaign consultant to begin with. I cannot imagine that this election is going to lead anywhere but awry, but I am here for this thrill ride. The end of the episode, John is telling a story about his childhood to a few potential supporters and announces his decision to run.
The Inception of Investigations
Marco and John continue to chip away at this case, Marco more enthusiastically than John. They receive a call from Key Largo where they have personally been requested to deal with a bar harassment call. When they arrive, they find a belligerent female victim who denies being the person who requested them. They then find the father they assisted last season with his missing daughter. He claims that the woman inside is a recruiter for Lowry’s trafficking ring so Marco and John take her in and manufacture a reason to get a search warrant for her house.
While Marco is off getting the warrant pushed through, John meets with Carlos who now claims that Meg and Sally are the two who bribed the witness in his case so that he could continue to smuggle drugs with Danny through Rayburn House. He claims, very loudly I might add, that the Rayburns were in on it from the beginning and that he was just doing his job. It becomes clear that someone, possibly Lowry, is manipulating this case and it’s starting to very quickly spiral out of John’s control.
While executing the search warrant at the recruiter’s house, John hides evidence connecting this woman to his case when he finds a picture of Miss Cortez (the suspect) and Rafi Quintana who is one of Lowry’s known conspirators. He hides the photo in his pocket and claims that he has found nothing and the place is clean. Temporary crisis averted, even if John is becoming shady as fuck.
Sally and Nolan
Sally is continuing to investigate the many lies perpetrated by her children with Lennie Potts. They traveled to Miami to check out Danny’s place and learn that John visited the Miami place on at least two separate occasions, about which he’s been lying. She finds a photo of Nolan as a toddler. After confronting John about the photo, she asks to meet Nolan and John sends him over to Rayburn House.
Nolan shows up and is a complete asshole to Sally. He’s rude and mocking, and he obviously has underestimated his opponent. Danny always seemed to respect his mother, so this behavior was surprising to me, but Sally had no trouble clapping back. After Nolan mouths off, cussing at her, she tells him to clean up his “fucking mouth” and I fist pumped for her. She then demanded he come inside for some lemonade and I think I might be sensing an alliance between these two sometime down the road.
So far, this season seems to be squaring up for a complete Rayburn meltdown, but I can’t imagine that this family will be brought down easily. I think the addition of the relationship between Nolan and Sally could make for some entertaining banter and I am excited to see how John is going to attempt to cover this whole thing up while running for a publicly elected office.
