Lights Out - "Crossroads" Review

“I kill you old man. I kill you until you die from it.” -Morales

Patrick Leary is on his way to the championship rematch with Death Row Reynolds we’ve all been waiting for. This episode couldn’t have come at a better time for the show. In what is clearly the strongest episode of the season, all the characters seem to be working together, playing their part to tell great drama. I’ve had some issues with previous episodes, namely the likability of Theresa and the lack of Patrick fighting, but both were satisfied in this episode.

Patrick is a fighter. And more than a boxer. The show is clearly juxtaposing his many fights out of the ring with the ones in it creating a constant inner battle as for what is Patrick really fighting for. He fights hardest for his family, and while that’s all well and good, we never really cared about his family because they were trying to keep him out the ring. The writers wrote Theresa into a corner by making her so staunchly against Patrick fighting, but I think they did a remarkable recovery job. Patrick isn’t fighting to set the family up for life anymore, he’s fighting again to keep them going until he can pass the reigns over to Theresa so she can be the breadwinner for the family. This allows Theresa to, while still being against it, acquiesce to the idea of Patrick fighting. The audience gets what they want and the writers don’t sacrifice the integrity of the female lead.

So with Theresa back in her corner, what does Patrick have left to fight for outside the ring? Seems as though his father is not taking a liking to Patrick’s idea of a cash grab title shot with Death Row Reynolds. He wants Patrick to fight 5 or 6 more times before the rematch, but Patrick knows his family can’t take that. The father, plagued by the notion that his coaching might have been the reason for Patrick losing the first time around against Reynolds, desperately wants to amend his mistakes of the past. So now Patrick has yet another battle to fight. I can’t see him taking on the 5 or 6 more fights, so how will he get his father back in the ring. His laissez-faire attitude with Johnny seemed to work, but I don’t think it will with his father. Of Patrick’s main three outside family influences, Theresa, Johnny, and his father, I think we have them in the best possible positions to create the best story. Theresa is begrudgingly letting Patrick fight to save the family. Johnny is acknowledging Patrick is the fighter and doing whatever it takes to see both his brother Patrick and the fighter Lights Leary are getting everything they want and need. Johnny congratulating Lights by saying “You did it.” was very important. No, “we,” just “you.” His father is fighting for boxing. He wants to do things the right way and is torn between seeing Patrick happy taking the shortcut to money, and building another champion. Perhaps he’s seeing that after one more fight, his days as a trainer are over.

As for the fight itself, Morales showing up to his weigh in drinking a 40 and carrying a machete and smoking a cigarette was priceless. They did a great job making him evil. Just how good is Patrick? He had to guzzle water just to make it over 200 pounds, can barely see out of his right eye, has been out of the game for 5 years and he still knocks out Morales in 2! It seems to good to be true. Did Morales get paid by Barry Word to take a dive? Was the low blow from Patrick really needed to gain an advantage? Or did the cut over his right eye actually help him focus by eliminating his blurry sight? Either way, I’m with pops, I don’t think Patrick is ready for the fight with Reynolds. One of his big problems in sparring was conditioning. What if he can’t knock Reynolds out in 2? Then what? He also went against his Father’s advice in taking the early opening to knock out Morales. Maybe Johnny will step in and coach. He was the more naturally gifted fighter anyway.

Other thoughts:

Daniella is fastly moving into the most unlikable character role. Surely she can understand why her parents are split right now. Perhaps it’s the enormous pressure Patrick placed on her by telling her the family’s success lies on her keeping a huge secret.

Patrick’s sister didn’t seem to pleased at the party. It looks like she will carry the burden of Patrick’s secret now.

Could they really not find better actresses to play the Leary daughters? Maybe by shifting the burden to Margaret, we’ll get less of Daniella. We never get to see all the daughters in an episode together either. The writers are limiting the damage.

One of my problems about Theresa was her ridiculous accent. Well this past episode they remedied that by Daniella asking about her relatives in England. Now we can drop the charade of her American accent and just go full on British.