Season: 2 / Episode: 7 (17), “No Strings Attached” / Starz
***Spoilers be loading ominous looking crates preparing for the end of days. Previous recaps are here.***
Bruh. Bruuuuhhhhh. We start with that hot mixtape that Mira dropped in the last episode, saying she wants to meet all of management. Ya know, to make all this shit go away. Or, make all of them go away. Management with that advanced age plotting what to do, knowing damn well who they are dealing with. They don’t think the crossing will open to let this happen, but there seems to be a plan for that too.
Prime finally lets the other side’s ambassador go and gives him a package for their fourth floor. I gotta say, the security check for this shit feels maaaaad light. Prime that ain’t Amazon sending a package? Sheeeeiiiiittt. We having all the dogs, all the bio-chem, all drones on patrol for that hand off.
Ahhhhh shit, Wes/Ian Origin Story, Zero Year up in this piece! Yeah, Wesley ten years ago, was not the cold steel of determination that we know Ian Shaw to be now. This dude apparently shared some trade secrets in the pillow talk and his wife died because of it. Ops made his ass a defector, sent him to the other side, and set him up with a new name to work their strategy. Your boy really got a relocation assignment while crying over his dead wife, yo. We stan a multitasker.
Your dude in the present day, driving to meet Emily Prime aka EPMD. But he’s got Management’s Emissary with him. Yeah, betrayal in the air like a muthafucka.
This cat Ballad of the Fallen Pete being debriefed, trying to fill in this fake ass alibi. Mila blew her head off so BFP could fly man. Naya watching through the glass, just fucking vexed. She gonna have put some prayer on it.
In the middle of praising Allah, an agent comes in to confirm that Mila was indeed working for other side (true) and she was the mole (definitely not true). Naya says to send BFP home under house arrest (I’m sure Snake Ass Clare gonna love that shit).
BFP gets home and your boy got a face on him like someone that was ready to murk himself but had his secretary take the fall for him instead. He goes into SAC’s room (which is some shit he don’t do) and sit down on her bed, probably ignoring that OG Spencer smell on her.
Maaaaaaan, listen. HOW THE FUCK HAS BALLAD OF THE FALLEN PETE NOT SNAPPED YET. Dude start talking about how he got cheated that his whole life didn’t flash before his eyes like they say, just one of Spencer finally smiling. And he’s betting that maybe Mila got one good one through her head before she chased it with a bullet. SAC is like who and BFP is like Mila.
SAC: Oh.
SAC planted her there?! Christ on Sale, seriously?!?! I think it’s fair to say that Pete got screwed on this whole transparency thing Cuz SAC got plans on plans on plans that dude ain’t aware of.
Naya is still at the office, this time talking to Howard in Black in the interrogation room. Ok, 1) Naya (Betty Gabriel) is fucking fantastic. She destroyed this scene. And 2) Can we just refer to this as the Two Truths or (my personal favorite) the Two Meccas Monologue. That’s gotta be the best use of metaphor regarding the two worlds yet. Also, she hit HIB with that witness protection cuz she wants Emily Amnesia protected, but also, she don’t trust HIB for shit.
By the way…that Echo facility. Muthafuckas still dead and slaughtered. But Arkham Pete still watching this futbol match. Yikes. EPMD and Howard surveying the scene, trying to figure out how everything went to shit. Howard puts together that this whole damn thing was engineered from jump. My dude needs some serious agency.
SAC straightening the house, but she reluctant to straighten the couch where the OG Spencer wore her out. Happy home yo. Happy home.
Roland comes to the house to bring BFP in. But first. A read. ROLAND READS THE WHOLE DAMN ROOM. Jesus. Roland, this ain’t that diplomacy fam (I’m still here for all of it). But, of course, SAC gotta get the last word and is like, so you don’t shit my choices cuz you didn’t actually raise me, pops. Which would’ve been empowering if SAC hadn’t actually murdered his real daughter…
…and the follow up is, he wants BFP to leave SAC. Wow, didn’t see that coming. Roland is like, she ain’t like she used to be and BFP is like, yeah, no shit bruh.
E-Amnesia is at the office to see Naya. I’m sure this will go well. Also…Mila’s dead body still in the store room. E-Amnesia got brought in to identify Shadow, but she ain’t really sure. Naya tell’s E-Amnesia that more BS is coming, so she getting that guard duty.
As if SAC wasn’t having a complicated enough day, OG Spencer calls her talking about he needs to meet. But like…it feels as if SAC is a little too trusting of dude. It’s hostile at first, until she recognizes that OG Spencer got the old cell back together. Ain’t nothing like terrorist reunions. And these cats look like they’re planning for the end game.
Howard is reading in EPMD on who Yanek was. EPMD realizes that Yanek was part of management and that this shit got big ass implications if Mira came to kidnap him. But also, Wes/Ian is on his way cuz its the only person EPMD can trust. Yikes. Says a lot about EPMD’s circle of friends.
Howard in Black getting used to this new security detail. But like, not really. He tries to have a conversation with BFP (also being escorted into work), but BFP is like…yeah, prank caller, prank caller. Lord have mercy, don’t let Howard in Black feel like he got no options cuz my dude makes options.
He meets E-Amnesia in the breezeway where the guards are ready to take them from point A to B. Back at the crib, HIB starts asking E-Amnesia about her work, and she starts giving up the intel. Well, HIB might find a way yet.
OG Spencer and SAC riding back and SAC realizes that this was a PR move to strengthen her resolve. She questioning all this, and OG Spencer is fed up. But dude is such a hardcore believer that SAC might want to chill. She almost on this light treason shit that George Bluth, Sr. was on.
Question, why the hell is BFP allowed back in the office, lol. Like, all of this is terrible, and your dude got all the nerve right now. But he gets read in to the super secretive meeting. And apparently Naya is the only one that sees that shit. She’s like BFP don’t need to be here…AND HOW IS THIS NOT OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE. They going at it until BFP chimes in and says that she’s right. And then…your boy quits. Which is good, but holy unnecessary since he should’ve been fired a long time ago. Which, if he’s no longer useful, might be the end of BFP.
So yeah…EPMD got set up. Management done sent a team to “clean up” the situation after they got the intel from EPMD. Shit turns into a stand-off real quick and also, Howard is 100% done. He’s like, later for that prisoner shit. Finally, EPMD convinces Wes/Ian to snap the out of it, so he draws his gun. And then you know what a gun’s sole purpose is to do right? Shoot some shit. Everyone in this scene starts shooting some shit.
EPMD takes one to the vest. Ayebody else gets that through and through action. Wes/Ian and Yorke get into some close-range action, and I’m like damn…one of these Black dudes ain’t making it out alive. Sigh.
EPMD gets to her gun and takes care of one dude while Wes/Ian grabs his gun and finishes off Yorke; just in time to see EPMD and Howard get away in one of the trucks. But also, Howard done took one to the gut. My dude is bleeding out in the front of the Grand Cherokee. Welp.
HIB goes out for “groceries” and because he’s the best spy this side of SAC, he loses his detail in the train terminal. Like, quickly.
BFP comes home to domesticated ass SAC. He’s like, yo, we gotta go, I’m no longer important to the cause cuz I quit my job. He using a whole lot of “we” fam. But dude already done drugged the security detail and given SAC an ultimatum. Cuz he claims he’s taking Spencer with him…I…I feel like this won’t have the desired effect.
HIB shows up and sees the detail is knocked the fuck out. And also it looks like folks left in a fucking hurry.
BFP and SAC are together (I really thought we were about to find BFP’s body). SAC really went along with this shit though, and she takes the fam where she thinks they’ll be safe. Indigo. Except without the child murder and re-education.
So, Howard in Black out here ski-masking this shit up and going rogue. Ballad of the Fallen Pete and Snake Ass Clare are on the lamb. Howard is gut shot. And Wes/Ian and Emily Prime are enemies of the state. Things are truly as bad as they’ve ever been.
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