Episode Title: “Sitting on Top of the World”
Writers: Mitch Glazer and Richard Cohen
Director: David Petrarca
Previously on “Magic City:”
Episode 2.05 “World in Changes”
It’s all about Ike (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) betting big in this episode of “Magic City.” In the case of the rigged Cuban lottery, he’s a winner. But when it comes to letting Stevie (Steven Strait) run the show with the infamous DJ convention, things couldn’t have gone any worse.
In the case of the boledo fix, Ike and Vincent (John Cenatiempo) just barely pull it off, coming to the rescue of one the men they hired to place a bet as the portly Butterball (played by rapper, Rick Ross) chases after them with a shotgun.
Down two million bucks with no one to blame and/or beat up, Ben Diamond (Danny Huston) puts a gun to Bel Jaffe’s (Michael Rispoli) head, because hey, someone’s gotta die for this. Also the fact that Bel let the bettor get away arouses Ben’s easily triggered paranoia. In an effort to save his own life, a panicked Bel urges Ben to consider an enemy who has a connection to Cuba – Nicky Grillo.
With all the tension between Ike and Ben as of late, it’s hard to believe Ike wouldn’t be the first person the Butcher suspects. He’s got a deal with Castro and plenty of reasons to want to hurt Ben’s bankroll. However, the Nicky Grillo angle offers up two things: an occasion for us to bear witness, yet again, to Ben’s sadistic side as he cuts Nicky up while stuffed inside Ben’s hotbox and a chance for Nicky to out Lily (Jessica Marais) as an opportunistic gold digger.
If Ben thinks Lily married a murderous gangster who killed his first two wives for anything more than his money he should go by “the Idiot,” not the “the Butcher.” That said, assuming it’s her alleged past with Nicky that’s got Ben upset, we now have even more reason to believe Lily won’t make it out of the season alive.
However, she does have one last hope in Stevie. After Ike entrusts him with running the DJ convention, Stevie appears to do little more than smoke cigarettes while chaos reigns around him. Victor (Yul Vazquez) tries to warn Stevie that things are getting out of control, but he doesn’t seem terribly concerned as a girl falls through the glass table she’s dancing atop of. Up until now, we had some reason to sympathize with the older Evans boy, relegated to the role of bartender and never given the chance to do much else. But here we get proof that he’s better at making “Cuba Libres” and dealing cards than running a major event.
In fact, it’s Danny (Christian Cooke) who saves the day, though the damage is already done. In between questioning/courting(?) Judi Silver (Elena Satine) about his father’s involvement in Jimmy Shoes’ murder, Danny comes to the rescue of a young woman, drugged and unconscious on a bathroom floor with a sleazy record exec on top of her. The good news is Danny saves her life. The bad news is she’s Jack Klein’s daughter.
When Ike gets wind of what went down he rages on Stevie, saying exactly all the right things to send him running to Ben Diamond, as if the Butcher wrote the scene, himself. The episode ends with Ike yelling after Stevie, “where you gonna go, boy?” I’d like to think Ike already knows the answer to that question.
In other not-so-exciting developments in this episode, Mercy (Domink Garcia-Lorido) chooses the barren Vera (Olga Kurylenko) to unload on about her unwanted pregnancy, Ike and Meg (Kelly Lynch) call to order another meeting of “the Secret Six,” and give them the story on Theresa’s disappearance and Danny learns the truth about the murder of Jimmy Shoes, although he doesn’t appear too shaken. We also get another one of Vera’s sometimes cute, sometimes eye roll-worthy attempts to expose both Lauren (Taylor Blackwell) and herself to Jewish culture by going to see “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Lauren would rather have a tea party with “Aunt Meg” than watch a movie about a Holocaust survivor. But instead of letting it get to her, Vera one ups Meg by giving her stepdaughter a make-up lesson instead.
By the end of the hour, it feels like “Magic City” has arrived at the place it should have been at with the conclusion of the first season. Ike has thoroughly spurned Stevie, leading him right into the welcoming arms of the Butcher, Danny’s forced to define “justice” in the face of his father’s actions and Vera’s comeback has come and gone, though there doesn’t seem to be any consequence to the “going.” The pieces are in place for some nasty power plays. Too bad we’ve only got two more episodes left to see them play out.
