great episode -
‘a bowling alley? is that what you see?’
WTF did I just watch? That was compelling as hell.
Did that scene make you think of “The Great Lebowski”? An oddball stranger at a bowling alley bar spouting meaningless advice.
Yup, although it was much funnier in the movie, due to the way Buscemi looked in the headlights.
I really liked the whole escape-and-chase at the beginning, but I felt the bowling alley scene undercut it, made it moot. Couldn’t the Ray Wise character have made that materialize whenever needed? I would have preferred this story stay a tad more grounded.
Also not thrilled that Sy was so blindingly stupid as to drink that tea and then not even rush to the hospital or call the cops.
Glad to see Emmit getting wise (no pun intended) to his circumstances and wily enough to fool his minders.
A few things that bother me. Wouldn’t the people in that car call 911, or at least wouldn’t the bad guys assume that they did and abandon the whole operation?
And why did they do it like that? Wouldn’t a prison shanking have been less conspicuous and raise less questions?
They might not necessarily have any contacts in prison.
Why would you assume the couple in the car would have a cell phone?
This is 2010. Not everyone owns a cell phone today, and not everyone owned one in 2010. I know I didn’t.
Having someone shank her in prison would be relying on a third party to do the job. This is a small group who do their own work. I would think they’d be more confident in doing everything themselves.
I think it’s a safe assumption that a middle-class couple driving down the highway in 2010 would have a cell phone. It’s certainly not safe to assume they would not.
Why?
Not to beat a dead horse but I’m a middle class person and didn’t get a cell phone until 2011. I know of many people middle aged and older who didn’t have a cell phone 7 years ago and some still don’t, or if they have one, barely use it.
In 5, 10 years from today, I’m guessing that over 95% of the US population will probably own and use a primary cell phone, but not now. I’s like when the telephone was invented, a large part of the population didn’t own a phone until 2, 3 decades after the invention.
But if you’re commiting a crime you should operate based on the worst case assumptions (within reason). This is obviously an experienced and capable criminal organization. They are not going to operate based on the assumption that someone doesn’t have a cell phone in 2010.
Right, the criminals wouldn’t be reasoning, well, not everyone has a cell phone, they would be pretty dumb criminals to think like that and dumb they are not. The old couple might have a cell and it is that possibility that would dictate the course of any intelligent criminal.
They tried that and failed - dude lost his head over it.
I am not clear why they decided to kill Nikki. They had the opportunity to do that instead of just beating her up previously.
I think the first thing on their minds was to get the hell out of Dodge. They were being chased, phone calls can wait a bit. It was probably all over in less then a minute.
Dennis
They were setting up Ray as an abuser - they likely intended to kill Nikki and Ray at the same time ( murder/suicide )- and clearly the beating needed to be a little older to pass inspection for the story to stick - when Ray ended up dead ahead of schedule, they still pinned it on nikki - but could not let her live to tell the story that Sy witnessed the beating as well as that it was not Ray.
The beating was also a message to Sy.
Why Nikki didn’t spill earlier is a good question - but they couldn’t risk it longer.
This, and in fact over 80% of Americans had cell phones in 2010.
Was I the only one to just realise what the link to the series opening scene is?
(Yuri Gurka who strangled Helga and fled, leaving his apartment’s new occupant to take the fall)
You think Varga is Yuri ? or the goon (that lost the ear) ? Goon had a Helga tattoo on his wrist - I did figure that was a callback.
The goon was specifically referred to as Yuri Gurka by “Paul Marrone” in the bowling alley. Presumably the one and same referenced in the opening scene of episode 1.
I figured the goon was way too young - and I missed the name (of the goon) itself.