‘Bloodline’ Recap, Season 2, Episode 8: Viva Caputa

I haven’t talked enough about Roy Gilbert (Beau Bridges) yet.

We don’t know what made him wealthy enough to bankroll political campaigns. We don’t know why he wants to back John Rayburn (Kyle Chandler) for sheriff, aside from the obvious benefit of having a sheriff in one’s pocket. But we do know he’s awfully generous. In each of the last two episodes of Bloodline, he’s shown up with an envelope full of cash for Meg (Linda Cardellini) in her capacity as campaign manager.

Perhaps because of this incredible generosity, Meg comes to Roy with problems of her own. First, it’s her brother Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz), whose marina is about to be foreclosed. When Kevin balks in his meeting with Mr. Garnet, Roy steps in, ready to buy out the property. Later, Meg brings up her issues with Ozzy (John Leguizamo), who keeps sniffing around the Rayburn campaign. Roy suggests that some creative “accounting” would free up the money to pay him off, and even lends her a goon to watch menacingly from a nearby car.

Why so generous? Why does Roy keep giving and giving while everyone else schemes? We know it’s not due to his merciful spirit: he tested Meg’s bona fides by slipping her damning information on Sheriff Aguirre a few episodes ago. Perhaps it’s because Roy knows generosity is a great way to get one’s hooks into someone. You make them dependent on you and they’re less likely to raise a hand against you.

Eva probably has that in mind when Sally (Sissy Spacek) calls her and Nolan in for a sitdown. Sally and Nolan spent a day in Miami, touring Danny’s old haunts. She visits Danny’s burnt-out old restaurant, sees the house that Nolan and Eva rented, and leafs through some of Nolan’s mementoes. Having discovered there was more to Nolan than just a source of Danny’s shame, she wants to make things right by bringing Eva and Nolan into the family. Not an apology, she insists, but a “fresh start.”

But Eva has her suspicions, and with good cause. Sally’s the one who wanted her to get rid of Nolan sixteen years ago. She’s the one who cut off Robert’s regular payments. And she may be counting on Ozzy to hook her up with some cash anyway – or at least cause enough chaos that she won’t want to be busing tables at the Rayburn House when he gets there.

Nolan seems more willing to trust Sally’s generosity. While Sally may be reaching out as a way to do right by Danny, Nolan’s reaching back as a way to escape him. He recounts a bitter memory of a Father’s Day dinner to Sally, further documenting why he’s less nostalgic of Danny than she is. And he recalls his father’s words to him in prison after Danny and Ozzy got arrested. “You are a fucking embarrassment to them,” Danny said. It’s to Nolan’s credit that he no longer seems to believe that, or much of what Danny told him.

(Which is probably why he burned Danny’s restaurant down)

We see the darker side of generosity in the final arc of the episode, when Marco interrogates John. He seems to have John dead to rights on the inconsistencies in the Rayburn family’s story. But John, having learned about Pam Ortiz’s story, turns the tables on him. He dangles what he knows – about Marco suppressing an incident report and being rewarded by Sheriff Aguirre in turn – and offers to keep it quiet. “People want me to use that to win an election, but I haven’t touched it,” John says. “Because I’ve been protecting you.”

Now why wouldn’t Marco be grateful for such a sweet gesture? The Rayburns get such a bad rap.

Similarly, Eric O’Bannon wants nothing to do with Ozzy’s payday. When Eric meets him on the shore – in a scene that serves no apparent purpose but to recap their relationship – Ozzy promises to cut him in. “Leave me out of it,” Eric insists. The reward that comes from Ozzy’s blackmail comes at the price of pissing off the Rayburns, and that’s a fire Eric has danced too close to these last two seasons.

Of course, with such an entangled family as the Rayburns, the only thing worse than being generous for the wrong reasons is being withholding for any reason.

When Meg brings Ozzy’s story to John, he shuts her down with uncharacteristic evasiveness. She freaks and takes it up with Kevin. More and more this season – in Episode 3, for instance – we’ve seen Meg and Kevin left to plot together while John goes off on a tangent. The triumvirate’s starting to crack.

On the other hand, John may have good reason not to trust Meg. Pam Ortiz calls John directly, since Meg keeps ducking her calls. This is how John learns about Marco’s corruption, giving him leverage. But it’ll also add to his sense that he’s alone in this – that he’s the only one with the will, vision, and capability to solve the Rayburn family’s various problems.

This is a lesson, perhaps the worst lesson, that he took from Papa Ray. Robert had his own way of solving the family’s problems: beating Danny up, paying off Eva, keeping his father’s violence quiet. Even after acknowledging everything that Robert did wrong, John can’t help following in his footsteps.

It’s a destructive, terrible idea, but can you blame him? Who else is going to look after the Rayburn family name? Sally, who can’t own up to her mistakes until they slap her in the face? Meg, who drinks away her problems? Kevin, who snorts away his own? If these are the alternatives, maybe John is the one to put in charge, however bad a man he’s become.

Or maybe the Rayburn family isn’t worth saving. Tough call!

Miscellanea

• Meg seems awfully cocky when planning the debate with Aguirre’s campaign manager. When he pushes back on the domestic abuse allegations, she asks, “Doesn’t that fall under crime statistics?” Counselor, a debate that avoids family history only helps you.
• “You people really think you’re the victims here?” Ozzy asks Meg. Whoa! Delveccio speaking truth to power here.
• Janie, I feel for you, but you can’t show up at Dad’s office in the middle of the workday and demand a necklace. That’s just bratty.
• Also, why did Diana tell Jane that she could have her necklace back when John already told Diana that he got rid of it? Is she trying to force John to tell the truth to Jane? Is Diana becoming the secret mastermind behind the Rayburn family’s misfortunes? The answer is no, but let’s not rule it out.

[Watch Bloodline on Netflix]

John Perich (@perich) lives and writes in the Boston area. When he’s not scrutinizing pop culture at Overthinking It, he blogs at his own site, Periscope Depth. His latest crime thriller, Too Late to Run, is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers.