Episode Title: “…And Your Enemies Closer”
Writer: Mitch Glazer
Director: Simon Cellan Jones
Previously on “Magic City:”
Episode 2.06 “Sitting on Top of the World”
In Ben Diamond, Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) sees an enemy, a man whose way of life yet he despises. And yet in this episode, we see the Miramar Playa’s big boss slide closer and closer down the same road Ben (Danny Huston) travels.
In his desperation to take Ben out of the picture, Ike reasons that doing business with a notorious dictator is the only way to rid himself of a notorious gangster. In doing so, he loses a friend in Victor (Yul Vazquez), who refuses to work for Ike so long as he’s in bed with Castro, and a son in Stevie (Steven Strait), who he spurned when the DJ convention turned out to be a disaster. The only person remaining by Ike’s side is Vera (Olga Kurylenko) and even that relationship’s not looking so good.
When Vera pays him a visit in hopes of getting him to reconcile with his father, a drunk and high Stevie comes onto his stepmother, bringing up the scene from the pilot episode where he catches her sunbathing nude on the balcony. It’s nice to finally see the point in that scene and now, perhaps the point of Stevie’s character. He’s “Magic City’s” resident bad boy, but he’s yet to do anything especially “bad,” until now. Sure, he’s committed adultery and murder, but it always felt like Stevie did the bad things he’s done against his better judgment. Here we see him finally owning and embracing the role of bad boy. If only this happened seven episodes ago.
But hey, better late than never. And Danny’s (Christian Cooke) also getting into some trouble of his own, both with Judi Silver (Elena Satine) and Jack Klein (Matt Ross). The fact that Judi Silver is still in Miami makes little sense but at least she’s tied to the larger story again and not just popping up when it serves the plot. Danny and Mercy’s (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) relationship was never that interesting. Now she’s pregnant with a Cuban rebel’s baby and he’s sleeping with his pimp brother’s whore. How’s that for a change of pace?
It’s also refreshing to see Ben get bossed around for a change. Sy Berman (James Caan) is in town and he’s not too pleased to see the Butcher featured in a smear story on the front page of the local paper. He’s also concerned about Ben’s ability to get the gambling bill to pass. And then there’s the matter of Nicky Grillo. The episode ends with the canister containing his remains washing ashore on the beach and according to Sy, there will be hell to pay if Santos finds out Ben offed his man, Grillo.
This episode does an excellent job of putting the squeeze on pretty much everyone. And we get a few bombshells to boot like Vera telling Mercy she wants her unwanted baby, Stevie coming on to Vera, Danny telling Klein about Doug working for Ben and Lily showing up in Ike’s office after hours with the goods to take Ben down.
Indeed, this hour supplies plenty of ammo for an explosive end to “Magic City’s” second season. It’s bombastic and soapy at times, and not especially original. But “Magic City” is entertaining. If you can look past, or rather learn to enjoy the show’s unintentional silliness, even better. There’s a lot of it in this episode, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a little guilty pleasure in watching it. This seventh hour turns a corner and it might turn off those viewers holding out hope for “Magic City” to develop into a higher quality period drama. But for those of us just looking for a fun, kinda ridiculous and somewhat campy drama on Friday night, it’s only getting better.
