Boss: Sn 2 Final Episode 10 – True Enough – Recap

This is the last episode of the Starz series Boss. It might be the last episode of the season, or possibly the last episode period. I’ve not heard anything definitive as to whether Boss has been renewed for a third season. We’ll have to wait on that.

But I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this fine production. Kelsey Grammer as the beyond evil Boss – Tom Kane, the seemingly once and forever Mayor of Chicago is superb. His role as this finely textured and totally captivating evil presence should be noted as a hallmark performance. For once we have a villain that’s out there as and most believable as man, yet his acts are incredibly evil. It’s like he does stuff that you could never imagine him doing. If this were a film instead of a TV series, we would be hissing at him in theaters all over the country. Yet, he never sinks to a level of a caricature or that of a cartoon-ish villain.

If in effect, if his is the last Boss broadcast, I shall really miss the show.

Opening scene. Meredith Kane is sworn in as the new Alderman for the 11th Ward. Nepotism lives, as Meredith is Mayor Tom Kane’s wife. Kane cracks a joke: How about that – two Kane’s for the price of one. This was something of a surprise. However it can’t be a long-term role for the marvelous Connie Nielsen. Meredith as a wife, of course, but as an un-elected City official – clearly No.

002 – Chicago Sentinel – Sam Miller and Jackie discuss the murder of Kenya Taylor. A Sentinel staffer alerts Miller that Mr. Bane – the paper’s owner wants to meet for lunch. Jackie says, I hope you have suit. Miller: I don’t need no stinkin’ suit. If Miller has nothing else, surely he isn’t lacking in confidence.

I’ve loved Troy Garity in the role for two seasons. He’s gruff, rough, and unkempt. But he’s driven and that’s admirable. Even when his grasps exceeds his reach.

003. Street scene: Ben Zajac is commenting about Tina Patterson’s death. He extends condolences to Senator Walsh as well as Ms Patterson’s family. Zajac’s wife – hears him on the car radio.

004 – City Hall. Kitty O’Neill arrives dressed in a business black suit. Ian Todd attempts to head her off. But Kane comes out of his office and signals Todd to let her pass. Kane: It must be a difficult time for you. My sympathies to your organization. Kitty – May I speak with you privately?

005 – Kane’s office – Kitty wants her job back. She says I heard Mona Fredericks quit. Kane – She was fired just like you. Kitty: I wanted out of the Walsh camp even before all this. I want back in. I thought my 8 years of service were exemplary. Kane stands signaling the interview is over. Nice to see you again, Kitty. Kitty leaves with out a job offer.

I was dead wrong about Mona. I liked her drive and intensity as well as her courage. At one point I even suggested that she could be the replacement for Kane – should he ever be expelled from office. So mark that one down in the Loss column for me.

006 – City Hall – Elevator – Kitty calls Doyle. We now see that she was operating under Doyle’s threat. Doyle wants the dirt on Kane. Kitty says, He didn’t say anything. I can’t do this. Doyle – Cooperate or be charged as a co-defendant. I have 8 years of subpoenaed files. The choice is yours.

007 – Becker’s apartment. Doyle and his police detective are there. It looks like a single gunshot wound. Self inflicted. Nazi paraphernalia on the walls and around the apartment. It looks like Becker and Langley were on the same page. Becker was the assassin who took out Ezra Stone. Looks like Kane is ridding himself of loose ends. By the way, Becker has replaced Ezra Stone in Kane’s newly recurring hallucinations. Doyle says, Let’s get our ducks in a row. Keep a lid on this. Too many cops with big mouths.

That certainly is the truth. Watch for Detective DeNovo’s appearance again.

008 – Kane’s office – Ian Todd comes running in. The State’s Attorney called. They found the man who shot Mrs. Kane. He’s dead. Suicide. apparently he and Langley knew each other, they were both insane racists or something. That’s good news. Todd steps up and says – With Mona’s departure I was assuming – Kane puts him off – Never assume anything.

You almost want to feel sorry for Ian Todd. He is very good at his job – but whenever he seeks some sort of praise from Kane – Kane shuts him down. On the other hand, Todd is a bit of a snake. There’s nothing he hasn’t done in the service of the Mayor, nor is there anything he won’t do for his own purposes.

009 – The Fredericks home; Mona is freaking out. He called her Bitsy, How did he know that Shawn? How did he know our daughter’s nickname? Shawn – Maybe you mentioned it once. Mona – Trust me. I didn’t. Mona is looking around the apartment. She looks under lampshades. After a few moments Mona notices a hole in the ceiling next to the light fixture, and another similar hole in their bedroom ceiling. Mona – He watched!

BOSS: Sn 2 Episode 9 – Clinch – Recap

The Starz series BOSS wrapped its second season a few days ago on Friday, October 19th. At this time we don’t know if there will be a third season. But things have come to a sensible and irresistibly clear conclusion. While everything for every character is not fully settled, it seems tidy to me. Much of what we witnessed over the two seasons has come full circle – if everything is not the really same as when it started, many things have changed but remain the same.

So let’s have a look at the last two weeks of Boss. I was in Europe at the time of the broadcast and it has taken me awhile to get caught up. So what follows is a scene-by-scene recap of the episode called Clinch. I’ve skipped some dialogue, and shortened some of it, but this is pretty much the entire episode. Let’s call it a play-by-play rather than a punch-by-punch.

Season 2, Episode 9 was entitled Clinch. As Mayor Tom Kane told us, this is an old sailors’ expression – Hard up in a clinch and no knife to cut the seizing. This means the sailors have experienced misfortune and have no way to get clear of it.

While this seemingly fits the episode, as it played out, it made the expression only partially true. Because no matter what else might happen, Tom Kane is still caught in the clutches of his Lewy Bodies Dementia (LBD), from which there is no escape. So in that sense, Kane himself was truly caught, or Hard up in a clinch.

For me the episode might have also been called Slippery Slopes. Because this is where most of the other characters found themselves. At the jump, we had Tom Kane, with proverbial hat-in-hand, standing in front of Governor Mack Cullen’s desk in the state capitol in Springfield.

Governor Cullen

Kane is asking for fiscal aid which isn’t forthcoming. Kane (standing) looks down at Cullen who is sitting at his desk:

Kane: Who do you think you are?
Cullen: I called for emergency management, the advance team will be there in the morning.
Kane: Who the fuck do you think you are?
Cullen: (rising to his feet) The Governor of the goddamn state, that’s who!
Kane: (having to leave empty-handed) Yeah [you] have no idea…

Back in Chicago, Meredith Kane arrives home after visiting her father, the former Mayor Rutledge, in the hospital. Emma is all over her with concern about her grandfather;

Emma: How is he?
Meredith: I’m not sure you have the right to know…

Meredith has heard that Emma (likely) withheld the old man’s meds which caused him to fall. We know that Emma did withhold the pills – the stupor-inducing meds. This leads to a grand confrontation. Emma basically accused Meredith of medically keeping the old man ‘out of it’ all these years and Emma wanted to know why. Meredith lashed out and slapped Emma. Emma struck back with a vicious shove which knocked Meredith over. Meredith (on the floor) was groaning and clutching her side. Of course Meredith had already been clutching her side and had some trouble breathing as she entered the house and climbed the stairs to her bedroom. A broken rib, a punctured lung – a hemorrhage from her wounds?

Sam Miller

There we are – just shy of four minutes into Episode 9 and already we’ve had two major confrontations. At the Chicago Sentinel, Sam Miller is telling his investigative reporter to do an in-depth background check on Detective DeNova who contacted him.

Jackie

Jackie walks in and tells Miller about Elizabeth Borden who will be taking over the city – as the Emergency Manager. A staffer comes in and tells them that Kane has cut the after school programs. This is just the first of service cuts that Kane will make to free up some funds to cover the city from defaulting – which seems inevitable.Jackie tells Sam, “Borden will take Kane down before you can do it.”

UPDATE

Update:I’m off to explore -

TV:

Boss – two episodes of the series 2nd season remain. I will miss the October 12th episode, and I’ll be delayed in getting to watch the finale on the 19th. I plan to cover these episodes – but I will be late.

Nashville – the new ABC music/drama series begins on Wednesday, October 10th at 10:00 PM. At that time I’ll be in Amsterdam, NL, and then, I’ll be in Paris. So I’ll miss the second episode as well. My coverage will begin in-depth with the third episode. I’ve chosen this series as I had a lot of fun doing the recaps and commenting on NBC’s Smash last winter and spring.

House of Cards – this is a new TV series premiering on Netflix on February 1st. Yup, it is politics again – but this time, it is not from the perspective of a cable TV news show. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright head up the cast. This is a USA version of the British TV series of the same name. David Fincher will direct the first two episodes.

Boss: Sn 2 Episode 8 – Consequence – Recap

Can you see the picture more clearly now?

Does the theme song make better sense now? “Satan, your kingdom must come down”.

The fissures in the foundation of the Tom Kane’s mayoralty, are not only visible, but are clearly getting bigger. Eight episodes of the starz Original Series Boss Season 2 are in the books – only two episodes remain. Let’s take a moment to catch a breath in a quick break and see what questions I brought to your attention at the end of last week’s recap.

1. Who did Kane target? McGantry, Doyle, Ross, or Miller?

It may not matter. Each of them has gained elevation on the teeter-totter of Chicago’s City Hall.

Alderman Ross double crossed Kane and did not deliver the votes Kane wanted on the budget issue. Why did this happen? Because Babe McGantry made his own deal with Ross. Kane lost the votes he had counted on, and the budget bill was defeated leaving the city’s finances teetering on the brink of collapse. Don’t forget the $10.4 Million cost of the National Guard who were rushed in to quell the riots. Governor Cullen got his payback against Kane by saying that the state of Illinois would not be responsible for that cost as it was all Chicago’s doing.

State Attorney Doyle? He turned out to be a voyeur cut from the same cloth as Kane. Not only did he like to watch, but he enjoyed the power his leverage over his assistant gave him.

Doyle to his assistant: Lift up your skirt … take them off … do it ….

Doyle was the one who gave his assistant the go ahead to get close to Zajac. Doyle just didn’t like that she slept with Zajac without Doyle’s permission.

2. Royczyk gave Miller a big clue. What is Miller going to do with it?

BOSS: Sn 2 Episode 7 – The Conversation – Recap

When Boss, Episode 6, closed – there were more than a few unresolved situations. Like Mayor Tom Kane’s experimental treatment that he received in Toronto. Which tied in with the fact that he had been missing from contact and sight in Chicago for a couple of days while the city blew up. This required the National Guard being called out by Governor Cullen – at Meredith Kane’s suggestion.

Like Babe McGantry not liking the fact that he and his cohorts had been squeezed out of the Lennox Gardens redevelopment. Or what about Ben Zajac’s arrest at the demonstrations. Then there was Kitty O’Neill becoming a major player behind the scenes with both Sam Miller, the Editor of the Chicago Sentinel and Senator Walsh – but where was she heading?

And there was still more that carried over from last week: Emma’s failed drug test because she swapped in her grandfather’s urine. Mona Fredericks becoming more and more uncomfortable around Meredith Kane. Then there was Darius becoming frustrated about his relationship with Emma. Trey Rogers and Alderman Ross plotting more mayhem. And let’s not forget State Attorney Doyle and the assassination suspect and Kane’s plans to have some of his former partners charged, a plan already in motion after Ian Todd got the Judge to agree.

And I don’t believe we’ve seen the last of the Ezra Stone hallucination. But all of the above can be put into the ‘that was then‘ category. Which brings us to the present, so let’s let it rip.

Right from the jump, we get a shock. Actually it is Meredith Kane who gets the shock. She’s looking in Tom Kane’s laptop. She’s seeking some guidance, details, facts, stats, plans – whatever – to help her stay on what ever course Kane was heading. But what she discovers is that Tom Kane is a voyeur and he’s obsessed or worse about Mona Fredericks. Meredith is horrified. It can’t be easy learning such things about your life-mate.

Speaking of whom, Tom Kane arrives home after being off the grid for 48 hours. He’s shocked that there are tanks in the streets. But he’s feeling better and he announces to Meredith that he is at his best when he and his wife are aligned. He says he needs a mirror, someone who sees things as they are. Meredith looks down at the laptop and says, We have much to discuss.

BOSS – Sn 2 Episode 6 – Backflash – Recap

It’s not so much that this episode was confusing because it really wasn’t. But the overriding sense was that it was difficult to watch because so much of it was a display of Mayor Tom Kane’s thoughts and/or hallucinations – both auditory and visual. While difficult to watch – these were very informative.

We received information about a younger Kane paying off a woman with a child, and about Kane feuding with Mayor Rutledge who is Kane’s wife Meredith’s father. Read on.

Long ago while Rome burned, according to popular legend, Emperor Nero fiddled. In the following days, other reports hinted that Nero may have set the fires himself – to clear our a dreary part of the city and then reuse the land for a new imperial palace. Was this the first case of urban renewal without compensation? The evidence is inconclusive. Plausible of course, but unproven unless you consider that Nero took his own life rather than face an assassin’s sword.

In the present, in the starz Original Series - Boss – Chicago burned, and the Mayor of Chicago, Tom Kane, well, he sizzled. In the dark of the night, Kane, accompanied only by the hallucination of Ezra Stone, made for Toronto, and the experimental treatment for his disease.

I used the term sizzled, maybe I should have said fried, because part of the treatment involved electro shock so maybe the word sizzle was mainly rhetorical.

Where is the Mayor?

In other events – while the Mayor was missing, his wife Meredith Kane managed to put the assassination behind her, and she climbed right out of her recovery bed in the Kane home. She made straight for City Hall, where she stepped in and picked up the Mayoral reigns. Something had to be done. The fiasco of the Lennox Gardens had sent the city over the edge and straight into chaos. You will tend to have an unhappy citizenry on your hands when forced evictions occur.

The Mayor is safe in an undisclosed location …

But things got real nasty after the Chicago Police Department went over and beyond SOP in their methods to evict some of the Lennox Gardens people. People were protesting their ouster from Lennox Gardens, while in nearby neighborhoods, other people were protesting that the Lennox Gardens people were allowed to move in to foreclosed properties.

BOSS: Season 2 Episode 5 – Mania – Recap

Boss Season 2 Episode 5 called Mania aired last night. Let’s put it this way. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, I’d say it was the darkest episode of the season.It was an episode without any positive actions by any of the characters except Sam Miller. But let’s hold off on Miller for a bit.

Mayor Kane doesn’t sleep well at all these days. It seems that his constant companion, a hallucination of Ezra Stone is with him nearly constantly. Maybe I should amend the sentence describing Kane’s sleep patterns to – The Mayor doesn’t sleep at all these days. On this night he calls the State Attorney Jeff Doyle at 4:00 AM to alert him that some major corruption cases will becoming his way later this morning. State Attorney Doyle says to his wife, Apparently Satan doesn’t sleep at all.

While Kane breakfasts, the arrests are being made. Ezra Stone tells Kane that he did profit in those shady deals he participated in. Ironic as the very people who were involved in the deals were now being arrested. Stone says, Power is a form of currency.

Kitty O’Neill makes her way onto the Walsh campaign bus. She’s working on something and says into her phone, It happens when I say it happens. We don’t know what she’s referring to. Kitty calls Walsh with the news that Kane is lopping off heads. His own people are the ones being arrested. Walsh is pleased.

Last week you will recall that Miller told Kitty O’Neill that he would agree to do a positive piece about Senator Walsh in exchange for the name of the man arrested (Chad Langley) who might have been the shooter in the Kane assassination.

This week, the piece about Walsh has been published, Kitty O’Neill reads it as she sits on the bus, as does Kane who asked  his driver take a side street and avoid some traffic. It is on this side street where they ride over a pot hole. Kane stops the car so he can call Commissioner Hardy and tell him to have that pot hole fixed today. Stone’s comment is, They say the measure of a man is how he handles power. Kane tells Stone to shut up, but his driver thinks he meant him. Kane apologizes, Sorry, Jimmy.

Mona Fredericks arrives at City Hall reading Miller’s piece. Before she can even sit down Ian Todd comes in and tells her that the phones are ringing off the hook. People aren’t happy about the Mayor having folks arrested.

In Hammond , Indiana, Joe Young, the contractor that was given the contract for Lennox Gardens finds that his equipment has been vandalized. His foreman says there are plenty of jobs in Indiana.

Ben Zajac is also reading the piece by Miller. He’s not a happy camper. Maggie Zajac comes in to tell him the good news. Unlike Kane, Ben Zajac has a future for high office in the state. Ben isn’t mollified. He feels manipulated at every turn by Kane. Maggie says this is your time, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are covering the gubernatorial debate. To further lift Ben’s spirits, she comes on to him, and finally rewards him with some sex, after denying him for months. She says, You’re going to win this thing.

At City Hall, Mona Fredericks comes into Kane’s office to tell him about the vandalism. He says, have Young beef up his security, but things will stop. In the wake of the arrests, the ‘children’ are just acting out. Kane then hallucinates that Ezra Stone is handling Mon’s breasts from behind her.

Ian Todd comes in, and Kane tells him to send out a million dollars to Zajac’s campaign. When Todd starts to question him, Kane says, Don’t worry about the money.

Jackie from Sam Miller’s office calls City Hall. She’s surprised that the Mayor takes the call. Any comments about the arrests this morning?. Kane says, Yes I have a comment. I’m doing the right thing.

Emma (Hannah Ware) at the rehab meeting

Emma Kane is in group therapy for drug users. She speaks about her strained relationship with her family and mentions that the only one she ever connected with was her grandfather – that would be old man Rutledge, the stroke victim.

Kane and Fredericks have a meeting with some big shot bankers. The problem is the properties awaiting foreclosure. Kane and Fredericks want these properties to be foreclosed so they can start putting the displaced Lennox Gardens residents into them. The bankers are saying that the rents would be too low. And the leases would tie their hands for years. Fredericks say that have a ‘no fail date’ of two years at which time the properties would be vacated. The bankers still resist. At Stone’s urging Kane sweetens the pot by offering a $500 subsidy per month per unit. They still hesitate. They would need the courts to accelerate the foreclosure proceedings. Not a problem says Kane. Consider it done.