Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 Episode 4: Rag Doll

Fans were in shock when Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 Episode 3 ended after a series of car explosions in the KPD parking lot.

A person has to be extremely brave or exceptionally dumb to start a war with the police. But that seems to be what the shot caller did when he ordered the explosion.

Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 Episode 4 opened in the middle of the action as the KPD initiated a chase for the two Aryan-affiliated suspects responsible for the bombing.

We've seen smarter -- and more successful -- bad guys. It didn't take as long for KPD to identify the two bombers responsible for the explosions as it did to find them.

MOK writers once again showed us an over-excessive use of force and police brutality from old-school police Ian.

It's still difficult to know how to feel about the nonchalant way that MOK portrays police corruption. The crooked cops give us brief similarities to the real-life cops in We Own This City, starring Josh Charles.

Ian continues to show that he'll stop at nothing to get answers. Just as Kyle is a trigger-happy meathead who is more content to shoot first and ask questions, never.

As Mike points out after the police chase ends in a hail of gunfire and a dead suspect.

We have to wonder if the bomber Robert and his team shot up in the bathroom could have ended the search -- and given them answers -- faster if they had negotiated his surrender.

Mike stays determined to find out the second bomber's identity. He even approaches Kareem at home after their tense standoff in the previous episode.

Kareem: What shit you bringing to my house?
Mike: Look, the Aryans set off bombs at KPD.
Kareem: Whoa, what bombs?
Mike: Yeah.
Kareem: Any casualties?
Mike: No. It's a fucking shitshow out there and I need a pass. I need to get to Callahan. Like now.
Kareem: I'll set it up.
Mike: Alright. Thanks. You're going to want to shower up. It's going to be a fuck of a day, Kareem.

Permalink: I need a pass - MOK S03E04 - Rag Doll

Kareem hasn't been doing too well since becoming the warden. He is still dealing with some trauma after the riots in Mayor of Kingstown Season 2, and it's affecting his entire life.

He's in his garage, blaring loud music and pounding back alcohol first thing in the morning. And he completely dodged Mike's query about his wife and kid. It looks like he could be bacheloring it up.

But at least he goes back to letting Mike do his mayoral duties to keep the peace between inside the prison and outside.

Or at least try by arranging a meeting with the Aryan leader recently brought back to the prison after getting transferred out.

From Mike's meetup with Merle, we deduce they have a shared history. While Merle agrees to help Mike, we know we should not trust the criminal further than his handcuffs can stretch.

Merle: Funny Mike.
Mike: What's that Cal?
Merle: This used to be exercise run for fuckers on death row, remember? Now it's a fucking kennel. Must be something in there. Some kind of metaphor.
Mike: I don't know.
Merle: Nights in the hole. You ever get those vivid dreams? I was having the best fucking dream, man. They say solitary's cruel and unusual. Doesn't have to be.
Mike: Why are you back?
Merle: 'Cause I missed ya. Shit just seemed a little, I don't know, rudderless. Gave it a minute. Bidded my time. Shit got worse.
Mike: So you come back to town. You don't reach out? That it?
Merle: I sent up a flare. I hear you took over for Mitch. That's big shoes brother. Big shoes.
Mike: Somebody had to do it.
Merle: No doubt. I was sorry to hear about him. And your mom now. Jesus, Mike. That's fucking body blows.
Mike: Merle, look I need your help, alright? Bomb set off at KPD last night. Two soldiers. Your people.
Merle: My people?
Mike: Yeah.
Merle: I just got back Mike. Sounds like old resentments.
Mike: Well they fucked up the job, Cal. The cops got one of them. Guy tried to shoot through a wall of SWAT.
Merle: Shit. They don't sound like rocket scientists, now do they?
Mike: KPD finds the other one. They're going to know who ordered. That could be a problem for you. Just saying. If I find him, I can make the problem go away. I need a name.
Merle: Get me back into gen pop. I'll see if I can get you an ID. It's the best I can do. Give me the day.
Mike: I can get you six hours.

Permalink: I can get you six hours - MOK S03E04 - Rag Doll

Seeing Mike meet up with his brothers at their regular diner is interesting. It's almost becoming a family tradition. I could get used to seeing it every episode, an homage to Blue Bloods, who made family dinners significant again.

Mike needs some normalcy in his life while juggling so many plates. He needs that personal connection to his family to keep him grounded.

We've seen what happens when he gets worked up over those close to him. Maybe that's why he feels such a responsibility to Anna.

She shot her son's killer in the previous episode, and now that she's in front of the court, she's not trying to do anything to help herself.

Leave it to Mike to contact Evelyn on her behalf and try to get her charges lessened so she spends less time in jail.

We still don't know what happened between them when Mike showed up at her door. Could something be brewing between them, as their flirty chemistry suggests?

Or is Mike using his flirtatious nature and rugged good looks to get Evelyn to bend his way?

In this episode, Mike uses his personal connections a lot to get his way. He is trying to cash in on his relationship with Evelyn for a client and Kareem to get access to the prison.

At least Kareem listened to Mike's advice about the outside this time instead of shutting him out. Even if he steps on his second-in-command's toes to do it.

Kareem: Today is not a good day for madness. There's chaos on the streets. And our job is to keep that outside of our walls. Make sure our population doesn't add fuel to the fire. So no outgoing calls. No visitation until this is resolved.
Guard: Fuck. That's going to be a shit show.
Kareem: Sweep cells. Turn out anyone who may have a cell, pager, homing pidgeon. Cut lines between prison and town.
Guard: Well, shouldn't we just lock it down? Warden?
Kareem: No, Carney. Don't revoke other privileges. That's idiotic. Our inmates didn't light up KPD. Right? We are not punishing the whole population. That's it.

Permalink: We're not punishing the whole population - MOK S03E04 - Rag Doll

While Kareem is taking charge of the prison, KPD continues its search for the second bomber.

As the getaway car crashes, the bomber runs from the scene, leaving behind his friend and driver, who is on parole.

While KPD surrounds the driver with weapons ready to go, Kyle jumps into action mode and negotiates the driver's surrender.

Guess the driver learned the hard way that who you associate with can bite you in the butt. He tried to help out a friend, which led to him violating his parole.

But just because he was trying to be a good friend doesn't mean he deserved to die. It's a good thing Kyle isn't as eager to shoot as his brothers.

His negotiation training skills might be of value once he transitions to SWAT. But we must wonder if he'll clash heads even more with Robert once he's on the squad.

The bomber tries to get away while Kyle talks down the driver. However, he runs into more danger than he could plan for as he enters Crypt territory. While the cops might not be willing to go after him, that doesn't mean he can get away.

Now it's time to worry about the bigger threat -- Bunny and his gang.

Combine one white nationalist bad guy and a city block run by an all-black Crypt gang, and you expect to see trouble.

Dispatch: Suspect continues to head west, now heading up toward Mordela Street.
Kyle: Oh this is going to get interesting real fucking quick.
Stevie: That asshole went right into the lion den.
Ian: Yeah, well only one of us has the fucking lion on speeddial.

Permalink: Only one of us has the lion on speeddial - MOK S03E04 - Rag Doll

It's interesting how life works out sometimes. Ian told Mike he wouldn't get access to question the bomber before they took him into custody.

But Bunny's crew found the bomber first and were happy to hand him over to Mike so he could return to the police.

It can't look like a criminal gang is working with the cops. However, that doesn't stop Bunny from asking the police to acknowledge his goodwill.

First, his dirty guard inside the prison snitches on another guard over a small infraction (although she could be responsible for Bunny's poisoned drugs). And now Bunny helps the police by catching a bad guy.

I guess even the bad guys can be good sometimes.

Bunny is dealing with enough issues now that he doesn't need to appear as an informant for 12.

Which is good; otherwise, Mike might be out of a job as a mediator.

We're unsure what else Mike could qualify to do besides being a criminal or a hitman.

He is pretty good at killing people. We're tallying up another body for his count following his quick-tempered decision to launch the second bomber off a three-story building.

Not that we blame him. He was a racist asshole with no redeeming qualities to keep him as part of society.

He did talk about Mike's momma. You '90s fans remember the dangers of that in the family hit film Little Giants, starring Rick Moranis and Devin Sawa.

Mike: Just give up the shotcaller and we're done. Or don't. KPD will fucking kill you and all your pasty-ass fucking soldiers.
Bomber: Oh, yeah? Does that include you, Mike? 'Cause I know you. I was inside. My first year was your last. Yeah, folks used to talk about you. That fucking Reverend, Mike McLusky, he was the man.
Mike: I'm sorry. I don't remember you.
Bomber: Yeah, well, you don't really remember any of it, do you? 'Cause you caught that jungle fever. Yeah, Gunnar tries to take you out, gets shived by your friends in there. Your house gets shot up. Huh? Your ma's funeral blown up.
Mike: What the fuck you know about my house, mother fucker? What the fuck do you know about it?
Bomber: I'm just saying.
Mike: Yeah? What are you fucking just saying?
Bomber: I'm just fucking saying man.
Mike: What are you just saying?
Bomber: I'm saying how it is. What it looks like, Mike.
Mike: Yeah, what's that?
Bomber: Business be business. And that's fine. But you dirty your hands. You touch black to get green.
Mike: Just say the fucking shotcaller. Say the fucking shotcaller. Merle Calahan.
Bomber: Fuck you, man. Fuck you.
Mike: Just say it.
Bomber: You fucking traitor.
Mike: Just say the fucking name.
Bomber; You give him up. You give him up, all he's done for our people? Huh? All he's fucking did for you?

Permalink: You're a traitor - MOK S03E04 - Rag Doll

He pushed Mike a bit too hard, bringing him to the edge. And Mike responded by pushing him back. Right over the side and down to the pavement below.

The bomber may not have realized it before he died, but he gave Mike the answer to a question we've been asking since last season.

Who ordered the shooting of Mike's house, which led to the death of his mom?

As we've seen quite often, when Mike gets mad, things get bad. He does not hold his temper in the heat of the moment.

Although he does better once, he's had time to calm down and work things out strategically.

But while Mike is in his green stage -- think Hawkeye turns Hulk -- people get hurt. Or, in the case of Bomber number 2, dead.

As we're left to unpack all the information laced into the racially delivered rant, we get thrown back into family drama.

Robert isn't happy with Kyle's decision to talk the driver into surrendering. By the way, we think he did the right thing. Not every situation has to end with the bad guy dead.

Robert: What the fuck was that today?
Kyle: What the fuck was what?
Robert: Did you know that dude was unarmed?
Kyle: No.
Robert: Right. So you're inviting a bullet.
Kyle: Farthest thing from my mind, brother.
Robert: So I'll say it again. What the fuck was that?
Kyle: Well, if you hadn't blasted that Aryan in the fucking toilet, maybe this be over a little sooner.
Robert: Ah that's detective talk, Kyle. That's fucking bullshit. And that mother fucker was armed. If you don't know if he's armed, then he's fucking armed. You get me? When you're in the field, and you got a sister in front of you and a brother behind you, and you make contact, what do you do?
Kyle: Two in the chest and one in the dome.
Robert: Yeah, that's a good answer.

Permalink: Two in the chest and one in the dome - MOK S03E04 - Rag Doll

We will be fair and say we can understand Robert's point of view. Things could have turned out completely different if the offender had decided to shoot his way out instead of surrendering.

When Mike went back to prison to talk to Merle, we expected him to confront the leader for his part in the attack that killed Mike's mom.

But instead, Mike plays it smart and pretends not to know that Merle is the bad guy he's been after. It will be glorious once Mike can finally exert his revenge.

Until then, Mike has decided to keep his enemies close, pretending to need his nemesis's help keeping things running smoothly with those under white power control.

We have to wonder about Mike's plans, given that he is willing to put a very bad, very powerful man back into Gen Pop to call the shots and have an army at his disposal.

If we had any doubts that Merle's return was safe for Mike, Iris, and the entire town of Kingstown, the episode's final scene squashed them.

Despite the guards sweeping the prison cells, Merle still has access to a phone so he can stay connected with the outside world.

It's who he reached out to connect with that has us all concerned. Having a bad guy in power like Merle be friends with a monster like Konstantin spells trouble for Kingstown and Mike.

Over to you, Fanatics.

How do you like the progression of the Mayor of Kingstown for its third season return? Do you have a favorite episode, character, or scene yet? What are your predictions for what's to come in the remainder of the season?

Leave us your thoughts in the comments. We love engaging with our readers.