This week a lot went wrong and some stuff went right in my weekly dramatic viewings.
This week on Animal Kingdom it seems as though the Codys basically all hit a reset from last week’s tension. I thought for sure there was going to be more fallout from that fight and Pope showing back up, but maybe all it was was letting some repressed anger out. Pope is moving back into the house and has decided to redecorate. Evidently he hated Smurf’s choices…weird. Deran takes his bar to-go to support a local skate race and things come to a head with a rival bar. It was nice to see his brothers and J having his back though. Especially after they got their hands on the police files noting that Adrian is being sent money. I for sure thought it was Deran doing it, but evidently it’s Adrian’s sister doing it. He warns her to stop, but I doubt that is actually going to happen. Things also seem to be going pretty well for Craig and Renn at the start of the episode, but then he learns she’s dealing again and they blow up at each other. As of the end of the episode, Renn took their kid and left.
Elsewhere in the episode, J has recruited Pamela’s granddaughter as the new family lawyer. It seems to me like J is going to try and take the property away from his uncles, but he covers by saying he got the family new legal counsel. In the flashbacks we see how unreliable Manny is because they find him beat to a pulp in his house. This sends Smurf through the roof because Manny’s been placing bets at her place and that might mean risking her kids’ safety in the future. She’s had enough of Manny and decides to pay off his debts, which is when she’s introduced to Pete. Weird how all of these staple people in Smurf’s life all show up around the same time. That’s some serious trust.
Over on Roswell, New Mexico, everyone is trying to figure out what to do about Jones now that they know he’s infiltrated Max’s body. Liz, Isobel, and Michael come up with a scheme to micro-dose him with the same stuff Liz gave Noah so he’d stop controlling Isobel back in the first season. While Liz and Isobel get him drunk, Michael will enlist the help of Rosa, who with her new alien hearing, should be able to help him locate Jones’ sword. They need to get the sword because Jones has been using it to kill people to become more powerful. He’s also one kill away from breaking Maria’s comatose mind, as we see at the start of the episode. Maria is tough and brave, but I feel like her fate will result in doom.
Meanwhile, Alex thinks he is getting led to his death by Kyle’s uncle, but instead he takes him to a sedated Kyle. I’m still a little fuzzy on what exactly has Kyle in a coma, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to get better anytime soon. In the meantime, Kyle’s uncle explains to Alex that he joined Deep Sky to learn more about aliens. He knows that the machine that’s seemingly caused a catalyst of events was built at Caufield and also caused a crazy dude from last season to go insane. Rightfully, Alex is pretty pissed to learn that. Kyle’s uncle also reveals that aside from recruiting him because of his father, it was also because of his relationship with Michael. I hope this means Alex will join everyone else next episode! Perhaps the biggest bombshell of a surprise this episode was Michael learning that Jones is the dictator, and therefore, Michael’s father. There was like a split-second of a reaction before more stuff went down, so I’d love to see a deeper dive on his reaction to that news next week.
Overall, I was very pleased with what happened this week on both shows. Animal Kingdom is a little further along in its season, so some things should start to come together or some big moves should be happening in the coming weeks. As far as Roswell, New Mexico goes, they are about halfway through, so while so much more could still happen, I hope some pieces start getting tied together and we get back to some of the personal emotions from prior seasons. So much has been happening that I feel like no one on that show has had a chance to sit back and digest anything! Until next week!