Gary McCurry reviews the sixth episode of Bloodline…
And we’re back. After two episodes of plodding along and learning little about what drives the Rayburn’s, we return to the tension filled, thrilling family drama that had me in a vice grip soon after seeing the pilot. Danny and John’s fragile relationship is the focus and you can’t take your eyes off it. For the 57 minutes that “Part 6” runs for we encompass a great deal. Dream sequences, check. Cocaine filled rave, yup. We even get a bar fight and that’s just a night in the life of Danny Rayburn (Ben Mendelsohn).
An eight ball worth of spoilers ahead.
Continuing on directly from the last episode, Danny is listening to the interview tapes featuring a 14-year-old John (Kyle Chandler) as he’s asked questions regarding his siblings injuries. Danny, knowing that the words he’s hearing are not only untrue, they’re being used to cover up the fact his now late father took the anger of losing a daughter out on him.
In a nice bit of fate, John calls and both are well aware of the situation but neither lets slip, coating their words in pleasantries. Both Mendelsohn and Chandler hit the notes perfectly, letting the silence say more than any speech could. My thoughts turned to, does John feel bad for covering up the beatings or does he simply feel bad because Danny now knows? The already heightened tension is raised when Danny proclaims he has a pistol to his head. If his plan was to gain a reaction from his brother then mission accomplished. Worried about him and, I imagine wanting to find out just how much he was told by Detective Lenny Potts, John offers a fishing trip. Explaining that he already has plans (those plans consist of alcohol, drugs and aggravating a man three times his size)the finish the conversation with so much hanging in the air.
Throughout this drug-fueled night the lens flare of the camera becomes more prominent and the colours spring from the screen. A method that worked for me, even though it wasn’t exactly necessary, Sometime a little bit of style never hurt anyone. Danny discovers for-a-night-friends due to the cocaine being freely shared. Dotting between bars he returns to the one where the whole night started and upon arriving he starts to taunt a man ordering rum punch. A man I should mention that is the size of a small house. He continues to aggravate the small house until it lashes out and proceeds to throw him around the previously quiet bar. By no means was this the first beating Danny Rayburn has took in his life, he is still slurring insults through a bloody mouth.
His night ends in a trailer park taking a hit from a crack pipe. Damage complete? Not quite. Suddenly we enter the mind of Danny and see for the first time what and who haunts him. Fulfilling the earlier conversation with his brother, he holds a gun to his head as he’s being accused of allowing Sarah to drown by his brother. A wickedly surreal scene that totally sucked me in until its revealed that it’s actually a drug induced daydream. You’re so hooked on the events that you forget the boat exploding with Danny on it segment we see in the first episode. Finally, I thought. My reluctance to believe that the episodes that preceded this were sheer indulgence was valid.
Other points to wrap up the review includes a side plot of Meg taking on a criminal law case of someone who had worked on the family resort as well as her attempt at pulling out a proposal from Marco was unsuccessful. Only a couple of lines as it sadly doesn’t warranty anything more. Switch to Kevin, who after some snooping found that his newly ex-wife has set up a dating profile. Obviously the road to go down is to stand outside the restaurant and watch, right? Why did Belle ever let you go? A welcome return to form for Bloodline. We can check out any time we want but we can never leave.
Gary McCurry – Follow me on Twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnc360pUDRI&feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published April 27, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
