“Haven’t met a problem yet that money couldn’t solve.” -Johnny
This episode of Lights Out needs to be looked at under two different microscopes. If we examine the episode independent of all other episodes it seems like a really solid episode. There was a brilliant guest performance by David Morse, an exciting arrest, and some good ol’ fashioned scheming. However, when looked at as one of the final episodes before the end of the season, and possibly, but hopefully not, the series, it just seems a little disjointed.
A large Soprano’s style family dinner was present that was very bright and uplifting. It was a fine scene, but I’m not sure we’ve seen the whole family together eating and having a good time. There’s a lot of inner turmoil that’s been present, but it seemed to have disappeared. One of the reasons it seemed so odd is that we finally had all three daughters back in the house. The tension of the episode was put on hold just so we could watch the family strengthen. While I appreciate what they were trying to do there, I’m not sure it was perfectly executed. There was some real drama built up last week with Patrick getting back in to bed with Brennan and brawling with Death Row, but they decided they couldn’t get to all that too quickly, so here we are at this episode.
The Councilman Hess story line I found very interesting, but I think it should have played out over a longer time. That was some real danger Lights faced. He was faced with bribery of a public official, had the feds on his back, and was being viewed as a loose end in Brennan’s operation. It all seemed to wrap up to easily and quickly. First he gets some inkling that Hess is wearing a wire, then he convinces a crime lord that he’s trustworthy essentially by only saying, “trust me.” It was all a bit unbelievable and I think we would have been better served by getting to see a bit more of all that danger start to percolate and boil over. Lights Out is not a political procedural show and nor do I want it to be, but I thought it was just a bit underdeveloped.
What was excellent about this episode was David Morse’s performance of Jimmy “The Rainmaker.” He brought a real honesty to the role and allowed for us to understand his life in just a few short minutes. His presence served two different purposes on the show. The first is he was used as an instrument to get Lights out of some trouble by convincing Councilman Hess to stop talking by using extreme force. This is the first time we see LIghts make a decision that bettered his position by not further putting his family or himself at further risk. If we can see more of Patrick using his other resources, and not just his fists, to get things done, the show will become that much deeper. The second purpose of Jimmy was to serve as a warning to Lights about the dangers of taking too many punches to the head. Though I think we were a little hit over the head (pun intended) with this idea, Morse did do a great job of showing that he still had joy for the game, but the consequences may not outweigh all the costs. We’ll see if this effects Patrick in any way, but he has a history of disregarding former boxing legends who impacted him earlier. Ed Romeo was such a strong force in his two episodes, but now it seems like he’s an afterthought.
Lights Out is till building to the fight with Death Row Reynolds. We know this. So it was no surprise to see the show steer away from the training for a bit. It was logical for Patrick to find himself fixing problems that didn’t get in the way of the healing process. However, I’m not so sure that the independent story of this episode was executed as best as it could have been to keep last week’s momentum going. I look for these next two episodes to really turn up the heat. So while I was particularly thrilled with this episode, I certainly am still looking forward to see how it ends. I’m definitely looking forward to more Barry K Word and definitely looking forward to an epic boxing match.
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