HBO’s The Night Of – Episode 3 – The Dark Crate: Recap & Review

The Night Of, the hit series currently airing on Sunday nights on HBO, unwrapped Episode Three called The Dark Crate last night. The Dark Crate is a reference spoken by inmate Freddy about how young lambs are kept (or more accurately imprisoned) prior to being taken to the slaughter-house. That’s what Freddy was speaking of.

But below the surface it is also a reference to Naz with Naz being confined and really not knowing or understanding how dire his circumstances are – just like the lambs confined to their crates.

While the reference was only a small slice of the episode, it did lead up to Freddy asking Naz if he wanted Freddy’s protection in this particular over-crowded cell block in Rikers.

We didn’t see or hear Naz’s answer to Freddy, but whether Naz did not answer or answered either in the affirmative or the negative, it seems clear that this is not the last we’ll hear about Freddy’s protection.

Williams as Freddy in The Night Of

By the way, Freddy is portrayed by Michael Kenneth Williams who was the actor who played Omar Little in HBO’s The Wire. For the record, Williams also had a small role in HBO’s The Sopranos Season 3.

Williams as Omar in The Wire

The episode itself breaks down into three areas: The case and Naz’s lawyers, Naz’s entry into Rikers, and the aftermath about what happened to Naz’s father’s cab. While the cab remains missing neither the elder Khan nor his two partners can make a living. And at this point I am shocked that neither the elder Khan or his wife have even asked either the police or Naz about the cab.

As far as the investigation, it seems that Detective Box thinks he has a slam-dunk case. Meaning there’s been nothing new from him.

Stone (John Turturro) continues with his agita provoking skin disease. His latest advice from his skin doctor – Coat your foot and lower leg in Crisco All Vegetable Shortening then wrap it all up tight with Saran Wrap. Then Stone sits in at his support group. But he’s got a tough assignment ahead of him.

He’s got to see Nasir Khan’s parents about his fee. Now Stone is known in the criminal justice system as a lockup crawler. Which means most of his clients are going to receive a plea offer rather than a trial. That’s because an accepted plea offer is easier on everyone from judges, prosecutors, and other assorted court officers. So at Stone’s urging most take the deal. Which means that Stone hasn’t much if any in the way of trial experience.

He’s sort of a low-rent version of Tom Cruise’s Lt. Daniel Kaffee in A Few Good Men. He’s also sort of a modern version Lt. Columbo – which means he doesn’t shave every day, his clothes are down market, he’s just this side of disheveled. It also means that he cannot command the high fees of more experience criminal trial lawyers.

So he does his spiel for the Khans. After telling them that most criminal trial lawyers get $150K and up. Or on an hourly basis every meeting, every call, every note taken and on and on carries a charge. So to help the Khans, he offers to do the case for $75K – a figure well beyond their means. Eventually he comes down to $50K but the Khans must sign off on that figure right now – and we’ll worry about the fee payments schedule later.

But the Khans can’t even see their way at that ‘bargain’ rate. Mr. Khan tells Stone that he has just $8K in the bank.

So Stone leaves without a signed retainer statement. He heads over to the DA’s office where he meets the ADA in charge. That would be Jeannie Berlin as Helen Weiss. She’s not willing to offer a plea deal, and the best she can do is to offer Stone a card of a tailor she knows. Get yourself a new suit. Tell him I sent you. Anything but brown. 

HBO’s The Night Of – Episode 2 – Subtle Beast

On Sunday night HBO rolled out Episode 2 in its new series The Night Of. The episode’s title, Subtle Beast is a reference to Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp). Box, like any good detective wants to solve the case. ****SOME SPOILERS AHEAD*****

But this is where it gets tricky. Box wears sympathy on his face, and when he speaks, we hear sympathetic tones.

After discussing the case with the DA, he understands that a confession would a) solve the case, and b) would go a long ways toward making the case as open and shut as he wants it to be.

But when Box interceded with the desk sergeant to allow Naz’s parents an opportunity to see their son and talk with him, he was again showing a sympathetic side. Of course Box knew that he would not be breaking any rules if he monitored the conversation between Naz and his folks.

Box and all detectives may NOT listen or view any discussions between the suspect and his attorney. But no such rule exists for family members.

Naz noted the camera mounted on the wall and after that, he told Box that he would not speak with him anymore.

Apparently the advice that had been repeated and repeated often by attorney Jack Stone (played by the marvelous John Turturro) at last, had sunk in.

But there’s more, much more going on other than what Detective Box does or wants to do. Let’s talk about Attorney Jack Stone. We got a good look at his skin ailment (eczema or psoriasis) on his legs and feet. How did that happen? Mostly because Stone was wearing sandals and was sockless. Not only did we get a good look at his bare ankles and feet, but so did some of the passengers riding in the same subway car as did Stone. Stone was kind of low-rent in his way. We know that he found his clients by hanging around in precinct station houses. So it was perfectly normal for him to say that he got the case because he was ‘in the right place at the right time.’

We also found out that Stone had a black wife (or ex-wife) and an adult son. That’s about all we learned (about Stone’s personal life) this week as no other background or back story was provided.

We also learned that the New York Justice System was kind of an old boys club. Jack Stone knew the personnel at various precincts, he knew bailiffs, and was on a first name basis with some judges. As we heard – you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

But more than that, we are to understand the monolithic structure of the New York Justice System as a self-contained structure that had been and would be an institution forever. The lawyers, judges, prosecutors, as well the victims and perpetrators would change; they’d come and go, and no matter who was speaking in any of the courtroom, the system retained its own life.

And that made it all the more scary as watched, protected by being in the safety of our own living rooms as young Nasir Khan began his own trip into the depths of the system. I can’t give the writer Richard Price and the Director Steve Zaillian enough credit in this regard.

From a holding pen in the 2-1, Khan was transported via a van to the Tombs, a jail connected to the NYC Criminal Courts building. Khan was marched from the van into the depths of the Tombs. The walk seemed to be ever-downward through a series of gates, fences, locked doorways that  needed to be buzzed from a control station in order to open.

Mr. Robot 2.0 – Season 2 Premiere

The USA Network took the wraps off its Mr. Robot Series last night, and Mr. Robot 2.0 launched. It was a two-part effort which began at 10:00 PM Eastern and finish at 11:30. I must tell you that I’ve many questions, so this is more likely to be a post written by someone who is looking for some answers rather than someone providing the answers.

I am truly a Johnny-come-lately to Mr. Robot, In fact, during its first season, which ran on USA from late June to early September last year, I saw none of it. If you had asked me who Rami Malek or Sam Esmail were, I’d have no answers. What you’d get from me would be a ‘I don’t have a clue shrug of the shoulders with my hands held out with the palms up’.

But based on a remark made to me, and Mr. Robot getting serious coverage in the Entertainment Weekly Magazine, a few weeks back, I decided to buy into what was described as a major cult hit show. So over a period of about 3 1/2 days in middle June I binge watched Season One.

Much of the time I was mystified. I did manage to catch on that Mr. Robot – played by Christian Slater, was a manifestation of Elliot Alderson’s dead father.

And the other big reveal was that Darlene (Carly Chaikin) was in fact Elliot’s sister.

I understood that the machinations of F_Society were all intended to take down the gigantic E-Corp also known as Evil Corp. That Elliot and Mr. Robot, Darlene and the others viewed themselves as freedom fighters rather than cyber-criminals. I recognized that Elliot’s employer Gideon Goddard was played by Michel Gill.

Now Gill as President Garrett Walker had fallen victim to the wheeling and dealing of Frank Underwood in the political drama House of Cards, so I expected that he would meet an unkind demise. Yet there he was in 2.0 – however briefly.

I had no idea what to make of Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström) other than he wasn’t to be trusted, and that he was up to no good. I was even more befuddled by his wife, Joanna Wellick (Stephanie Corneliussen) who had some peculiar tendencies to say the least.

Another character that I pigeon-holed as a dark presence was Michael Cristofer who played Phillip Price, the CEO of the E-Corp. Once upon a time Christofer caught my eye as Jerry Rand in the failed NBC series Smash.

The Infiltrator

More than twenty tears ago, actor Bryan Cranston had a small recurring role on the Seinfeld show. He played Tim Whatley, a dentist. While Seinfeld has retired from broadcast TV (he now visits friends and takes them out for a coffee and some chuckles). Cranston on the other hand, has moved on to bigger and better roles.

Like Walter White, the ubiquitous every man who became the ruthless King of Meth in Breaking Bad. Like the blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Trumbo. Like former US President Lyndon Baines Johnson both on stage and in the TV movie All The Way.

Cranston’s latest film, called The Infiltrator, opened today. Cranston plays Robert Mazur, an agent for the U.S. Customs Department who comes up with the idea that instead of tracking the drugs to lead them to cartel leaders, they would follow the money instead.

Mazur poses as one Robert Muselli, a big-time money launderer. John Leguizamo plays Emir Abreu, an undercover agent who has the necessary street creds and lower level connections to get the introductions that Muselli/Mazur needs.

Benjamin Bratt plays Roberto Alcaino who is Pablo Escobar’s main drug distributor. Diane Kruger plays Kathy Ertz who poses as Muselli’s fiance.

Amy Ryan (The Wire) is on hand as Mazur’s tough boss. Yul Vazquez is on hand as another of Escobar’s front men, his investments manager to be precise – one Javier Ospina.

Yul Vazquez also had a recurring role on Seinfeld as a ‘street tough’. We’re taking the armoire and that’s all there is to it. Okay?

The rest of the cast is the usual suspects – crooked bankers, cartel muscle, family members (kids and wives) and assorted fringe US Customs agents and lawyers.

The setting is the mid 80’s during the Ronald Regan era. Mazur is nearing his retirement but he agrees to go undercover after his boss lets her guys know that the word has come down from Washington DC. They want the biggest bust ever with the ultimate target being Don Pablo (Escobar). The fact that Mazur has agreed to this ‘last’ job is severely disappointing to his wife (played by Juliet Aubrey).

Okay, the premise is not new, and the film isn’t about excesses in anyone’s life-style. Yes, there are private jets but not so much in the way of luxurious mansions, yachts, and expensive cars. In fact, apart from Mazur/Muselli having to look like a successful businessman on occasion, the film, while decidedly not a low-rent production, definitely lacks the glitz and glamour that you might associate in a film about drug lords and cartels.

While I won’t go as far as saying that the film isn’t any good, I was disappointed. Cranston, Bratt, Kruger, and Leguizamo are all effective. Mazur/Muselli is tough when necessary (I don’t do business under threat) and tender with his wife and family when needed.

HBO’s New Limited Series – The Night Of – Episode One – The Beach – Recap and Review

HBO premiered the first hour (plus) of its limited series called The Night Of on Sunday night, July 10th. It is an 8 hour 8 episode series, so let’s have a look at it. ****Major Spoilers ahead****

As the show opens we are in a classic college lecture hall. The subject is math, specifically Calculus III, and the Stokes Theorem. Most of us will not be able to make any sense of the what the professor is saying or have any interest in the theorem or equation he’s just written on the blackboard. This runs about 30 seconds.

Cut to the college’s gymnasium, some guys are involved in a pick-up basketball game and others sit on the bench. Our main character is not going to play, he’s just hanging out with friends. Another 30 seconds for this.

His name is Nazir Khan. He’s played by Riz Ahmed. Now Ahmed is an actor you’ve likely seen before.

He was the guy hired by Jake Gillenhaal in the 2014 hit film Nightcrawler (which I reviewed here). Before that I saw (and reviewed) his film The Reluctant Fundamentalist in 2012. And before that he played Jay in the remake of the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. The film was called Trishna and it was released in 2011.

Ahmed will soon appear in the new Jason Bourne film opening later this month as well as the upcoming Star Wars film, Rogue One, which opens around Christmas.

So we can say that the dude is getting some very good roles. Here, he’s an American college kid born of Pakistanimmigrants, and soon enough he’s invited to a party that night at 55 Center Street in downtown Manhattan.

Anyhow his Dad picks him up at the college, and then they are off to 74th Street in Jackson Heights, a New York version of Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk neighborhood. Here there is a vibrant and bustling community of Indians and Pakistanis. Nazir’s Mom works at a sari/salwar kameez shop His parents have two sons and he’s the youngest. The father drives a medallion taxi cab.

When his mother asks what his plans are for the night, he tells her that he’s going to a party in downtown. His mother disapproves.

Later, after his friend is unable to get a hold of a car, and his parents have retired to their bedroom. he grabs the keys to the taxi and heads out of Jackson Heights, Queens, New York for lower Manhattan.

Nazir doesn’t know much about driving a car, much less a taxi. If you are driving from Jackson Heights, Queens to downtown Manhattan you don’t take the Queens Midtown Tunnel (and pay a toll). Instead you take the Brooklyn Bridge and pay no toll. Plus when you get off the bridge, you are right there at Center street.

He doesn’t turn his taxi light off or to Off-Duty. So he’s plagued by people hailing him or getting into his cab. This also means he has no idea how to lock the taxi’s back doors.

Now these are not major flaws in the story, but they do set up Nazir as naive, and inexperienced, as well as seriously lacking in street smarts.

Nazir doesn’t know it yet – but when this young woman, Andrea Cornish (played by Sofia Black-D’Elia) gets into his cab, his whole life is going to change for ever.

She’s an attractive woman, and she doesn’t want to hear that he’s not on duty. Finally he relents and says where do you want to go? She says, the beach. He says, well this is Manhattan, how about the river. Okay she says. And they end up sitting on an old wooden landing, on the Manhattan side of the Hudson River just south of the George Washington Bridge.

Soon this woman offers him a pill. He refuses but then ultimately takes it. Really? I may have been willing to share a joint with a stranger back in the day – but a pill. No way.

Finally she’s ready to go home which turns out to be an elegant brownstone at 144 West 87th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Nazir parks in front of water hydrant. Another mistake.

Murder in the First: Season Three Episode Three – Black and Blue

TNT’s Murder in the First aired its 3rd episode of Season Three last night. And once again series creators and writers Steven Bochco and Eric Lodal gave us a lackluster and misguided episode complete with another god-awful bait and switch.

You know what I mean by the terms bait & switch don’t you? Strictly speaking, bait and switch is primarily a tactic used by advertisers or in a sales offer to lure you to the store or sales site by making an offer that looks too good to resist, then when you show up, either the offer has been discontinued, or they will say the product has sold out – would you be interested in this instead.

In a television series, a bait and switch basically plays out like this – a problem is created for one or more characters in a specific week. Then, the following week, the so-called serious problem is miraculously or quickly (and unexpectedly) solved. So there’s no more problem.

This season, Murder in the First gave us their first bait and switch issue in week one. Detective Hildy Mulligan (Kathleen Robertson) is told she has breast cancer. Her doctor told her to ‘get her affairs in order’.

Then early in Episode Two, Hildy is contacted by the same doctor. It seems that at the lab, the biopsy tissues got mixed up. You don’t have cancer. It was just a mistake at the lab.

Really?

How creative!

Not at all. What we have here is a straight forward manipulation. The intent was to get Detectives English (Taye Diggs) and Mulligan in bed together. Which they did. In a simpler term than manipulation it was just a ‘ploy’.

Then later in episode Two, they get a lead on the location of Billy James, the former friend of the slain quarterback Normandy Parker, who has quickly become a lead suspect.

Mulligan and English and a SWAT team don their Kevlar vests, and saddle up to capture this guy. Of course they knock down the door of an apartment and rush in. English heads down a hall way and hears something in a bedroom. This guy is escaping through a window. English gives chase.

Ultimately, the fleeing suspect runs himself into a dead-end, and is cornered. English sees him reach behind him for a weapon. Before the suspect can get off a shot, English puts 4 bullets in the guy’s chest. He’s dead before he hits the ground.

Only the dead guy had no weapon that the police could find.

Now Terry is in the crosshairs of being a policeman who killed an unarmed man. A story line ripped right from the front pages of today’s newspapers across this land.

Then early in Episode Three, after English had been grilled by I.A. and he told them he saw the gun tucked into the waistband of the man’s pants as he was going out the window. And after Detective Mulligan had lied to the I.A. investigators by saying that she too had seen the weapon. She was lying to back up her partner.

Then, a youngish black woman shows up at police HQ with her 10-year-old son. They hand over a handgun. The boy says he found the gun in the area of the tree mural on the wall of a building. The very place where Detective English had rushed past while in pursuit of the fleeing suspect.

Later, the crime unit forensics tests had found the dead guy’s finger prints on the gun’s magazine.

So case closed. The Police Commissioner told the media that Detective English had been cleared. So, so long to Detective English’s problem and Detective Mulligan’s lie. It was that easy.

Of course there is a kicker. The dead guy wasn’t Billy James after all.

So the story of the investigation of the quarterback’s murder is still ongoing. The quarterback is still dead, and the possible shooter, one Billy James is still in the wind.

Of course, he will be captured and hauled in for questioning by the end of Episode Three. And you do know what that will result in, right?

Of course. While the police lay out all the options to the silent Billy James, like get ahead of the curve and tell us who hired you, and make it easy on yourself – tell us who paid you.

All Billy James would say is – I want a lawyer.

But what really rankles me is the story that just won’t go away. That would be DA Mario Siletti’s DUI and Vehicular homicide case. Siletti remained an asshat well into this, the third episode. First he waited for ADA Melissa Danson in the park where she jogged every day. She said – what are you doing stalking me? Which of course he was doing.

Then Siletti managed to corner the State Attorney General to ask for his help. The State AG listened and then told Siletti the case is in the hands of ADA Danson and you will not be getting any preferential treatment.

Marcella – New Crime/Drama Series on Netflix

Netflix recently launched a new and imported TV series. Crossing the pond after airing on the ITV Network in the UK in April and May, Marcella is an 8 episode crime drama. And it is very good.

Marcella Backland (Anna Friel has the role) once was a London homicide detective. She married a lawyer (Nicholas Pinnock as Jason Backland) and ultimately left the police force to become a homemaker. a wife, and a mother. That was about 10 years ago.

As the series begins, we have Marcella (pronounced Mar-chell-a) in a bath tub. She looks awful. It appears that she’s either been in a fight or was simply punched around by someone. We aren’t given any information, and moments later we get a screen graphic that says 12 days ago.

Marcella was visited at home by one of the detectives working out of the branch where she had previously worked. His name and rank are DI Rav Sangha who is played by Ray Panthaki. He wanted to question Marcella about a new case that bore similarities to a case involving a killer that Marcella worked on back in the day.

That murderer was called Peter Cullum (played by Ian Puleston-Davies above). He dispatched his wife (because she had left him) by means of plastics ties at the wrists and ankles. Then he placed a plastic bag over the woman’s head, then taped it around the throat. He then sat and watched her suffocate. There were other murders with a similar M.O., but Cullum was only charged and convicted of this wife’s murder.

As it turns out, Marcella’s husband and she had their difficulties. The kids were away at private school and he wanted some excitement in his life.

So he took up with one Grace Gibson (Maeve Dermody above), who was also the daughter of his employer – Sylvie Gibson (played by Sinead Cusack below) . They all worked at a prestigious architectural firm called DGI.

Though she wasn’t aware of her husband’s infidelity with Grace, Marcella wanted to go back to being a homicide detective. Keeping the house just wasn’t enough for her.

So she signed on and was immediately attracted to the similarities of her old case with Peter Cullum and the new cases. But her colleagues had already ruled out Cullum as he was still in prison.

Murder in the First: Season 3 Episode 2 – Tropic of Cancer

Half a lifetime ago, in 1964, Bob Dylan wrote, recorded, and performed a song called The Times They Are A-Changin’. Fast forward to tonight July 3rd, and I’m the one singing about The Times They Are A-Wastin’.

That’s because I just watched the second episode of the TNT Series Murder in the First. ***SPOILER WARNING***

So they start off with a stick up at a liquor store which is later described by Detectives Molk and Navarro as located at Geary & Polk.  Well according to the street photos, there is no bodega, convenience store, liquor store, or even a corner newsstand at that intersection. But no matter. This robbery is one in which the perp didn’t even take out his hand gun. He merely showed it, tucked into his waistband, to the guy behind the counter, who calmly took out his own gun and blew the perp away.

There was nothing to this attempted robbery but it served to set up some excellent police work when they reviewed the security cam footage of the inside of store. More on that later.

The second bait and switched involved Detective Hildy Mulligan and indirectly Detective Terry English. Last week we learned that Hildy had been told by her doctor that she had breast cancer. Get your affairs in order was the advice from the doctor.

With that in mind, Terry tells Hildy that he’d like to care for her, watch over her, and simply be there for her because things would get worse. English knew this because his own wife had succumbed to cancer in the first season.

That led to a night of heavy breathing and rumpled sheets at Hildy’s apartment with Hildy and Terry as the players. Louise, Hildy’s daughter had conveniently been granted permission to stay over at a friend’s house for that night. Terry was astounded – On a school night? , he asked.

How convenient!

As for the murder of Normandy Parker, the All-Pro QB, the party had 350+ guests and no one was able to make an ID of the shooter. But the police caught a break. Parker’s gf, the blonde,

comes in to the police station (with her lawyer) only after the twitter universe exploded with the news that she was being difficult. Also arriving somewhat awkwardly was Parker ex-wife. These two should have never crossed paths in a police hallway.

But the ex-wife had plenty to say – she did have a one-night stand with Parker’ best friend Billy James, and she did know about Parker wanting to re-configure the prenup.

Speaking of Billy James, he was spotted Detective Navarro in the liquor store security cam footage in the liquor store just prior to the failed holdup. And per the security cam footage from the bank across the street, James did not drive away; rather he walked away – meaning he was staying in the nabe.

Again – how convenient.

Then there was a tip that James was staying in apartment in that area. Hildy, Terry and the SWAT team bust in. The guy, possibly James leaps out of a window with Terry in pursuit. After a short pursuit, the guy has run  himself into a dead-end alley. When he reaches for something – English places 4 kill shots dead center into the guy’s chest.

Only it is not Billy James, and what’s more there was no gun found.

English is in hot water. The town is up in arms. Demonstrations all over. Black Lives Matter indeed. As they have been known to do before, the writers then give us another bait and switch. We see English in Koto’s office. Terry is handing over his gun. Has he been suspended pending an investigation? That’s what I first thought about.

Queen of the South (Episode 1×02) Cuarenta Minutos – Recap and Review

Queen of the South aired its second episode Thursday night: Warning Spoilers Ahead.

If you recall the first episode, Teresa (Alice Braga) had gotten cozy with Guero, a drug distributor. The head of the cartel Epifanio Varga (Joaquim de Almeida) had Guero and his pal killed because they were stealing from him, and he was after Teresa and the other guy’s wife too. Killing an entire family is supposed to be usually a strong deterrent to prevent such occurrences.

But Teresa escaped and survived a car wreck that she caused after killing Epifanio’s driver. They had driven her out into the desert to kill her. Epifanio said, Help me out of the wreck, and I’ll let you live. Leave me, and I will kill you. Do you think that there’s any place you can run to that I won’t find you?

Teresa leaves and later she falls into the clutches of Camilia Varga, whose network remained in place in Mexico.  Camilia has left Epifanio because he wanted to leave the drug business to enter politics. Camilia decided to stay in and she relocated to Dallas, Texas. Her drug operation continued. The closing line of the first episode was spoken by Camilia to Teresa,

Welcome to America.

So as the second episode, called Cuarenta Minutos (Forty Minutes), opened, Teresa is in the lockup portion of Camilia’s drug operation warehouse. It is here that some women who are used as mules to transport the drugs are held captive. They are regularly shot up with drugs to keep them docile as well as to keep them needy enough for the drugs to remain in play as the mules when necessary.

So another girl in the care of Camilia’s warehouse gang approaches Teresa. She relates that she gets better food, special privileges, and so forth because she does some work for them. It maybe that she provides sex, but it is definite that she swallows small packets of H for delivery, which is the job of these girls as ‘mules’.

How do I know this?

Because within minutes, this young girl keels over dead. Teresa calls for help, but there’s no help to be given as she’s already dead. They place the dead girl on a table, and then, as if slicing open an old canvas valise, they cut her open to retrieve the packets. They are only able to pull out 23 as the other two packets likely ruptured and poured the H into the girl’s system, thereby killing her.

While they were retrieving the H, a gate was left open, and Teresa attempted to make a run for it. But they captured her minutes later.

Meanwhile Camilia is palling around with some Dallas bigwigs at a Christmas party. Camilia gets a text from her lieutenants – Teresa tried to run. 

She immediately leaves the party and heads back to the warehouse. Teresa is told unceremoniously that because she tried to run, she will now have to work as a mule. When Teresa refuses, Camilia tells her guys – okay drug her up then put her to work.

With a needle only inches away, Teresa frantically changes her mind – okay I’ll do it. I’ll make your delivery.

That decision begins a long set piece. Teresa has to have a passport made up. tickets for a flight have to be purchased, and they have to get to the airport. I won’t spoil the set piece for you, but it is pretty complex and well done.

Plus the set piece is cross-cut with Camilia a) talking with Epifanio on the phone, and b) discussing arrangements with a new banker which as you all know means ‘money laundering’. The banker is both eager and cautious. He tells Camilia that he works on a percentage as commission. She is just as cagey – We’ll see how you perform before we settle on your ‘compensation’.