Lights Out: War

I was tempted to write this final recap in an unending sequence of clichés that built upon each other because it would have been exactly like the season/series finale of Lights Out: a bunch of rehashed tropes that was somehow entertaining to watch. From the boxing sequences (where Lights gets thrown out of the ring and uses the rope-a-dope) to random camera shots (Barry, Hal, Johnny, and Pops waiting in the hall after the fight could have been lifted straight out of Ocean’s 11), everything seemed overdone.

Instead, I’ll keep this short because, unfortunately, there’s not a lot to say about this show. This final episode seemed to be building new story lines for the show’s second season that won’t happen, like the League of Extraordinary Boxing Gentlemen, the incredible and bloody aftermath of trifling with Barry K. Word’s business, and the (immediate) onset of Lights’s memory loss. None of that really matters, I suppose. The only thing I’ll miss without a second season is seeing how Reynolds deals with his fall from grace. I’ve said before that Reynolds was a lot like Lights, and it would have been interesting to see how that played out as he went through the same things Lights did. 

Sidenote: During the press conference, Reynolds points out that if he were in the same legal troubles as Lights, he would immediately face an assumption of guilt because he’s black. This is obviously a huge theme that seldom arose throughout the season, and discussing racism so openly always puts people on alert. This should have been bigger all season. This is why you can’t have nice things, FX Network.

Real Life Sidenote: The moment where Lights tells the ref to stop the fight was interesting, when you consider what happened in the recent Manny Pacquiao fight.

Literary Sidenote: The ending of Lights Out had a very nice ambiguously happy-sad ending. I immediately thought of Thom Jones’s The Pugilist at Rest, which is a fantastic book of short stories about boxing (and other awesome things).

Lights Out: Sucker Punch

In any half-decent writing workshop, someone inevitably says something like, “You know what? I need to know more about (blank) character.” Even if it’s a stupid comment, it always comes up. If Lights Out were being workshopped, that question would be followed by ones like, “Where is the Leary mother?” and “Why did she leave?” And if you’re writing workshop is only half-decent, the writer will carelessly throw in some crazy answers to the crazy questions late in their story just because everyone bugged them about it. Lights Out did just that, introducing Patrick’s mother, Mae, played by Valerie Perrine. 

Mae walks back into the Leary life, and Patrick and Pops welcome her with open arms. I’m not sure why Pops didn’t react the way Margaret and Johnny did, because it’s not like Mae has entered and exited their lives five or six hundred times or anything. Patrick’s daughters fawn over their new grandma, too, which is weird. Blah, blah, blah. It’s another cliché plot device in a season full of clichés. She left Pops for a drummer (not to be mistaken for a musician) who is so broke he forces Mae to weasel money out of the Leary family. Patrick finds out and breaks little drummer boy’s hand before giving Mae $20 grand I didn’t know he had and cutting her out of his and his family’s lives. 

Yes, this show has been a series of clichés and guest stars, but it’s somehow still very entertaining. Maybe it’s because the acting is great. Barry K. Word should burst into every scene and just start spittin’ hot fire at everyone. Margaret’s hospital freak out was great. (She’s been one of the best characters on the show despite not getting as much camera time as others.) Then Eamonn Walker as Ed Romeo and David Morse as “Rainmaker” were great. Even Lester the drummer, who gets two minutes of airtime was played by the very good Paul Calderon. Or maybe it’s because the show is smart enough to have Margaret (and Johnny) treating Mae the way they did. It adds a nice bit of believability to a show that can feel shark-jumpy with all the coming and going of side characters.

Oh yeah, while all this was going on, there’s some preparation for a big boxing match that is supposed to be happening in the season’s (and series’s) final episode next week. The betting line drops so hard that Barry comes in and spits fire, someone tries to pull a drive-by on Hal and Margaret, and Johnny pulls an amusing prank to steady the line, making the media think Reynolds had a heart attack. It’s a jerkface move that even Pops seems to enjoy. Johnny’s smirk when seeing his work unfold really was a fantastic moment of television. Hal then tells Lights that he was moving the line low because that way, the odds against Lights means a bigger payout for anyone who bets on him. Somehow Barry, Johnny, or anyone else missed that day of Gambling 101.

Sidenote: Ever since I found out Billy Brown is both “Death Row” Reynolds and the narrator of the U.S. Marines commercials, it’s been impossible for me to watch any of his outbursts on Lights Out without thinking, “The few. The proud. The marines.” This amused me even more after he threw a table over on (live?) television. 

Gross Sidenote: I mentioned it a few times throughout the season, but I don’t get how schleazy old Johnny manages to hook up with everyone in exchange for promoting his brother’s boxing career.

Hilarious Historical Guest Character Sidenote: Valeria Perrine’s IMDB page says she was the “first woman to display (on purpose) her nipples on American network television.”

Lights Out: Rainmaker

I’ll be honest: I’ve never gotten completely on board with Lights Out, but I only figured out why after watching last night’s episode. The show seems to float between a successful serial drama and a show more like Law & Order, where the stories are wrapped up at the end of each episode. “Rainmaker” is a perfect example.

All of a sudden, Patrick has to deal with the repercussions of his delivering a birthday cake with a sweet filling of CASH MONEY to a lowdown dirty councilman. This takes up most of the episode, as Patrick is arrested, his home is searched, and a nice FBI man pays a courtesy visit to Patrick at the Leary gym.

While all this is going on, there’s another story line involving another former boxing champion by the name of Rainmaker (played very well by David Morse, of Treme and House). For 3/4 of the episode, the two stories seem unrelated; Margaret says she wanted Patrick to see him because he’s all punchdrunk, broke, and can’t remember anything he doesn’t write down. She doesn’t want to see her brother end up like that. At one point, Theresa, who apparently watches crime dramas like Law & Order when she’s not on camera, is surprisingly willing to come up with an amazing and complicated story about how Rainmaker was the “champ” who delivered the moneycake, not Lights. 

These plots come together in the very end when it’s revealed that Lights paid Rainmaker to make it rain (with his fists, not cash money) on the councilman. Rainmaker gobbles down the paper with the councilman’s hotel address on it, so it’s like it never happened. For me, that moment saved the episode from being a complete bust. It was such a good ending that I didn’t see coming, even though it should have been ridiculously obvious. (Theresa pretty much lays the groundwork for it with her crazy plan!) The problem is that Rainmaker will likely disappear completely from the series, like Ed Romeo, while the major story line of the FBI investigations has to keep going. 

Sidenote: Reynolds’ brief appearance is rad. He essentially turns Lights into their rematch’s bad guy by pointing out that, with the sum of shady things happening to Lights, some of it has to be true. Then he implies that he’s always the bad guy because of his race, which is probably true. Reynolds kicks ass.

Sad-eyed Sidenote: I love Hal Brennan as a bad guy. He’s so calm and evil! I have to admit though, I crack up every time he gives this sad puppydog face to threaten Patrick.

Lights Out: Cut Men

Finally, Lights and Reynolds fight! Too bad it didn’t happen in the ring, as Lights Out has been promising all along. To be honest, I’m not sure I care. Even though this episode cranked up the energy for the Lights/Reynolds rematch, it also reinforced the modern family drama aspect as the show’s real strength.

It turns out Reynolds isn’t that different from Patrick. In fact, he’s Patrick Leary five years before the show starts, willing to sacrifice everything for his wife and child. Earlier in the season, I wrote that I hoped Lights Out discussed the racial issues brought up by Reynolds always playing the “black hat” in the fight narratives, but it’s almost a non-factor for him. The fight’s audience is the only party served by the racial tension. Regardless of race, all the fighters are being used by the same machine until they’re no longer profitable. (Barry K. Word has made money off Lights, Morales, Reynolds, and Omar Assarian, all casting them as stereotypes of their ethnicities, and now he’s doing the same with the mention of the Ukrainian Mustafa.) Personally, I think the show could take a very interesting turn if Patrick and Reynolds never got their rematch and forced them both to deal with their lives outside of the ring. Just when Reynolds starts to think the same thing, Patrick makes a deal with Brennan and gets all loud and punchy with Reynolds, keeping them both trapped in the Barry K. Word money machine. 

How delightfully evil is Hal Brennan? Look at his grin. His business gets shadier, too. Earlier, it seemed he was in business with Barry K. Word (whose full name is really fun to say, type, and read), but now it seems he’s just making his own shady deals with other shady people. 

Theresa is not shady. Maybe for the first time, Lights Out lets her carry a scene without any other established characters, and she comes out a winner because we actually see her making the decision to give up on her dream in order to support her husband. Obviously, that doesn’t stop Patrick from doing his own thing. This will likely lead to his own Johnny moment, where he effs things up by trying to do the right thing. The lies are also piling on for Patrick. He tells Theresa the money from the Morales fight went to the IRS when we know it all went to Brennan. 

As usual, the sum of each episode is more problems for Patrick. He’s gotta fight Reynolds now, but what is it worth? How much of his purse goes to Brennan? How is he supposed to train with that wound in his side? (Also, how did he not die when Reynolds punched him in his wound?) On the plus side, I like seeing the fightin’ spirit coming out in Lights. Sometimes he’s too passive, willing to be reactive instead of proactive. Showing up at the restaurant to pick a fight with Reynolds is a nice way for Lights to make things happen. 

Sidenote: Regarding the family drama, how about the tension when Johnny withholds information from Theresa by saying “It’s a family thing,” revealing how he sees Patrick’s other family?

Other sidenote: Seeing Patrick walk around Theresa’s graduation with his sunglasses on indoors was hilarious. That’s what happens when you pick fights with people, Lights: the next day, you end up being “that guy.” Everyone knows “that guy.” “That guy” sucks.

Shakespearean sidenote: Johnny’s just going to keep making Shakespearean references, isn’t he? This time it was The Merchant of Venice: “You got stabbed. He wants his pound of flesh.”

Final sidenote: Barry K. Word rules. Hearing him say “I never play” is simply chilling. Also, he looks superfly in a purple bow tie.

Lights Out: Infight

Lights Out spends most of the time examining the gray areas between right and wrong, understanding that almost nothing in life is ever that simple. Most of this episode built toward Lights’s firing of new trainer and awesome character Ed Romeo. Despite all the hints that made firing Romeo pretty much inevitable—Patrick walking in on what looks like Romeo making Daniella cry, Patrick walking in on Romeo and Theresa holding hands—I didn’t want it to happen. Sure, he’s wrong to ask Patrick to completely avoid Johnny and Pops, but his motivation is admirable. It’s both right and wrong. I would totally understand if Patrick suddenly cut Johnny out of his life completely; he’s a total fuck-up who repeatedly makes Patrick’s life worse. He’s also trying to do the right thing. In a way, Johnny and Romeo aren’t that different. They’re both making good and bad things happen with the best intentions. Only Johnny is kind of a skeezebag.

Romeo takes over this episode, which I’m OK with. He’s unstable, and he’s got real emotional problems. It’s interesting that the camera stays with Romeo when he breaks down in his bedroom. I believe that’s the first time a Lights Out character has completely let his guard down on camera. Humanity is always intriguing to see. This is why we watch TV and movies, right? Romeo is clearly damaged, so we understand why Reynolds fired him. But Reynolds’s relationship (or lack thereof) also says a lot about Romeo. We see that Romeo (at least) seems wrong in his assessment that Reynolds is afraid and uncentered, but we also see Reynolds doing yoga, swimming, and having all of his life priorities straightened out. If Romeo were able to put aside his history with Reynolds, I imagine he’d mostly approve of Reynolds’s mindset while preparing to fight Lights.

From there, things get all pushy, punchy, and even stabby. You just knew another bad thing had to happen to Lights.

Sidenote: Love the literary fun going on in this episode. Johnny calls Romeo “Othello.” And what’s going on with the book Romeo is reading (Ether, God, and Devil)?

Other sidenote: During a commercial break, I discovered that Blue Crush was on at the same time. Turns out Blue Crush and Lights Out have some pretty similar story arcs going. In Blue Crush, Ana Marie Chadwick (Kate Bosworth) is preparing for a huge surfing competition, only her roommates, most notably Eden (Michelle Rodriguez), disagree with her “training” by teaching some hot young stud how to surf. Chadwick = Lights, Eden = Johnny, hot young stud = Romeo. I found this humorous. It’s a pretty canned plot, especially for sports films and shows, but Lights Out is at least doing it in interesting ways.

Lights Out: Head Games

Last night’s Lights Out episode exposed some sort of duality in pretty much every character involved the show up to this point, and it was all anchored by the appearance of the mysterious Ed Romeo (played by Eammon Walker of Oz, and Cadillac Records). Patrick turned to Romeo after Pops said he wouldn’t train Patrick to fight Reynolds. Enter Romeo, who sets off a chain of subplots with his unorthodox training technique of breaking fighters down to their core and working from what he probably sees as a fighter’s true self.

Pops, Johnny, and Margaret all band together to try to get rid of Romeo, which seems like the first time they’ve fought against Patrick rather than with him. It most certainly must have been the first time they’ve all turned against Patrick. Even when Johnny was screwing things up (or still is?), he’s at least trying to help. Seeing Pops walking down the street with ramen, seeming to use his cart as a crutch, was a rare moment of his weakness on display. We see that he’s lost a lot more than a fighter when deciding not to train his son. 

Theresa and the Leary daughters have their moments also (aside from the youngest, who is apparently on an eternal “Girl Scout retreat”). Most notably, Ava ranges from spoiled teenager to showing that she can be caring and charming. When Theresa mentions that Ava was a natural at the hospital, Ava blows it off as nothing because she easily relates to people (at least non-Learys). The writers’ decision to have Ava point out exactly how aware she is of her parents’ marital and money problems by saying she just wanted to forget them was pitch-perfect as well.

The best scene, though, belonged to Theresa, Patrick, and Romeo. First of all, I liked seeing them having a late-night conversation. It’s a small thing, but it’s the type of small thing grown-ups do when they have guests. It also led to the hilarious conversation where Romeo tells them he likes his fighters “relaxed,” so they should “keep on doing what they’re doing” (as opposed to refraining from sex before a fight). Patrick and Theresa’s reactions were priceless. Sure, they may be grown-ups, but talking about sex in front of relative strangers can be pretty awkward, especially for Catholics (I would know). Romeo’s choice of words was perfect, too: “Keep doing what you’re doing.” What are they doing? Sure, everything seems fine now, but it wasn’t that long ago when Theresa kicked Patrick out of the house. Couples (and their children) don’t forget about things like that. 

Finally, Romeo once again reveals a little more about Richard “Death Row” Reynolds, who I’ve already said is my favorite character. I worry that the show is shaping Reynolds as a sort of black-athlete stereotype: Romeo describes Reynolds’ childhood as fatherless and troubled. Luckily, Reynolds makes an appearance to warn Patrick about Romeo. As usual, we’re not really sure what his motives are, which is fantastic. He also throws some more doubt onto Romeo, who already harbors some dark secrets. That these two mysterious characters are granted access to the Learys only makes them more dangerous and intriguing.

Sidenote: At first, I hated the idea of bringing in the Ed Romeo character. His approach to training through finding what really makes a person tick is a sports show cliché and a bad writing gimmick. (It’s a lot like making your protagonist go to a therapist to tell the reader all the character’s problems.) It worked, though. Not only did he bring out many unseen parts of other characters, but he had some fantastic moments himself. Was I the only one who thought it was a really nice moment and also incredibly terrifying when he took a picture of the Leary family?

Lights Out: Crossroads

From a sports drama perspective, the opening scene with “Death Row” Reynolds talking to Lights in the diner may have been the most satisfying scene of Lights Out yet. Personally, I find Reynolds (played by Billy Brown) to be the show’s most intriguing character. Maybe it’s simply because we don’t see enough of him, so every time he makes an appearance becomes immediately significant. But there’s also something about a guy who seems just as hardworking and likable as Lights conceding to be constantly cast as the villain in the boxing narratives simply because of his skin color. It shows an amazing amount of self-awareness on his part. 

The conversation between Lights and Reynolds is the kind of conversation I’ve always fantasized about legendary athletes having (that is what these two boxers are, right?). Reynolds clearly understands both the hero-worship and myth-making of larger-than-life athletes as well as his place in a long line of history. NBA fans assume LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had this kind of conversation at some point and realized they could catapult themselves way up the hierarchy of NBA history. Do we know that? It’s also interesting because writers and fans are always using this history to build up and tear down our sports icons. Baseball fans absolutely tore (and still do) Barry Bonds apart because he knew—just as everyone else did—that perhaps the game’s most unlikable player would sit atop the list of baseball legends. When Kobe and LeBron chose their numbers (24 and 23/6), they were both praised and hated for their obvious attempt at gunning to pass their sport’s top athlete (Jordan). It’s an understatement to say I’d like to see more of Reynolds on the show. His character adds a refreshing level of depth to Lights Out.

The rest of the show was fairly Rocky-esque, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It was entertaining to watch, but the plot points were all prescribed. Patrick trains, family argues, and Theresa shows up in Patrick’s corner, which of course fuels him to knock the crap out of “el Diablo” Morales. There are great moments throughout though:

- Daniella as distributor of alcohol via hairspray bottle is so effing hilarious. Of course someone who didn’t know what they were doing would put alcohol in a spray bottle. (True story: In middle school, I brought patis, a Filipino fish sauce, to school in a spray bottle and sprayed it on kids’ clothes. Just one small spray made them reek of awfulness all day. I avoided trouble when the principal accidentally made a borderline racist comment about the actual edible quality of the odorific stuff).

- Lights Out spent a full two minutes showing Patrick taking an eye exam, and somehow I wasn’t totally bored. (What was his acronym for passing the test? Fantastic Light Electric Orchestra somethingsomething?)

- Morales brought a machete to the official weigh in. That’s all kinds of crazy and all kind of badass. Morales truly redefines “crazy badass.” He also does a really good Pedro Cerrano impression when he says “I kill you until you die from it!”

- Theresa says “I missed you,” after the fight, and I assume she meant she missed Patrick the boxer as much as she missed him living at home. 

The episode ends with Pops telling Patrick they won’t be training together if Patrick really intends to fight Reynolds. This makes for good television. While everything is all happytimes at home, Patrick may risk permanently damaging his relationship with his father. If you thought the boxing sequence during the Leary/Morales fight was terrible, that’s because it was. I was disappointed at how awful it was, actually, until I realized Pops also saw how terrible the fight was. It’s possible Morales had some shady dealings going on with Brennan (or their eyes met between rounds from across a packed arena because they find each other dreamy), otherwise we would’ve seen a lot more of this:

Lights Out: Combinations

The best part about getting Lights back in the gym and training is that Lights is finally a force in motion. While a big portion of the show has been setting up the forces working against Lights and getting them to circle him like vultures, at times it’s been a bit frustrating to watch him watching the vultures gather. Meanwhile he’d do just enough to fend them off (such as not dying). Patrick’s training is the beginning of him fighting back against those forces.

Sportswriter Mike Fumosa (played by Ben Shenkman) played a key role in this episode, which seemed fitting for an episode where all the boxing action was used to establish narratives. From the fantastic Barry K. Word on down to the fighters, everyone knows a fight is more than just a fight. They all work toward building the Good vs. Evil storyline in order to sell tickets. Fumosa buys in as well because he’s a writer, and he knows all the narratives. Maybe this is the wordnerd in me sympathizing with him, but I get the feeling that Fumosa might actually be a very good writer. He just happens to cover a dying sport for a dying industry. I particularly liked the relationship between Fumosa and Patrick. Fumosa’s repeated offers to allow Patrick to essentially change the real stories resembles the relationships some athletes and reporters develop after having extended close contact with each other. I get the feeling Fumosa will do something terrible to himself, but I hope I’m wrong. I like him.

Speaking of sports narratives: as fans, we sometimes buy into the narratives and take for granted the fact that our favorite athletes are likely fully aware of the manufactured identities created for them. In Lights Out, they become active participants. The whole staged press conference and backstage bro-hugs was a nice touch. El Diablo had to ruin it by actually being a d-bag, which keeps the Lights Out audience in on the whole Good vs. Evil dynamic. 

The Leary family gets bonus points in this episode. Pops was great as always, and Johnny’s schleaziness actually helps Patrick out in this episode (and also indirectly gets Fumosa fired from the newspaper). Ava’s character became more than a teenage stereotype. Patrick’s sister and diner-owner Margaret comes through in a big way by asking Theresa the question everyone who’s seen this show has been wondering: How could she ask the man she married to become a totally different person? Everyone sees that Patrick is a fighter at his core. It’s what makes him feel alive. Even though Theresa stonewalls Margaret, it’s obvious that Margaret’s visit made her rethink what she’s doing to Patrick. 

I thought the episode ended on a rare high note. Not only do we think Theresa might actually be flexible (at least a little), but he finds some light through his crazy double vision. It’s a small moment, but a much needed one. A show as bleak as Lights Out needs as many positives as it can get. (Patrick’s conversation with Fumosa at the bar was another nice moment). Plus, the small victories can lead to bigger ones (Lights has to beat El Diablo, right?). 

Sidenote: Word brought up a great point about the racism that comes with boxing promotion. Patrick gets to be the good guy because he’s white. Even if he really is a good dude, the skin color is what really matters. I’ll leave it at that for now and wait until the show builds on it. 

Other Sidenote: Pops looks funny in Patrick’s double vision.

Lights Out: The Comeback

Last night’s episode of Lights Out was all family drama, which sounds lame but isn’t. The family dynamic—complete with money problems, deception, and shattered dreams—is what makes the show interesting. Lights Out obviously aspires to be about a normal American family fallen victim to the current financial crisis. The first 30 minutes of “The Comeback” is a whole lot of Patrick arguing with his wife and daughters. While that’s not terribly entertaining, it’s terribly honest. All of their conversations also seem to be burdened by the Leary financial planner telling Theresa straight up that the dream she’s finally pursuing just isn’t good enough. I imagine more than a few Americans can relate to that (though maybe the show’s ratings prove me wrong). In other family news, Patrick finally fires Johnny as his manager and primary money handler once he finds out Johnny has already sold Patrick’s next fight to the awesomely evil Barry K. Word.

Barry essentially owns Patrick’s future now. He’s like Don King, in that he’s a boxing promoter who will do anything for a dollar (like destroy Joe-Joe’s “glass” hands). He also steals the show in this episode. Unlike Hal Brennan, Word is completely open with his cruelty, and when Patrick walks out on him, he knows as well as we do that he should not be effing around with Word. The good news (for us) is Patrick doesn’t have a choice. 

Now Patrick has to take on something (someone?) much larger than he is. Well, I suppose we’ve known that all along, but Patrick has confronted one of the forces working against him. He’s also unwittingly allied himself with another one of those forces in Hal Brennan. All this in the name of fighting back against his own family’s economic crisis. Unfortunately, he’ll have to do it without Theresa. I get the feeling that she’s much smarter than Patrick, and she’s not willing to give her whole family to Mr. Word. 

Random note: I’m glad Patrick finally yelled at his daughter Daniella. Not only was she starting to annoy me a little bit, but I’ve been waiting to see him lose his patience with someone in his family. Patrick bottles things up hoping they’ll go away. It’s probably why he boxes. It’s also why he has outbursts like yelling at his daughter, throwing Word’s table, and trashing Johnny’s office (earlier this season). What he actually said to Daniella was some of the better dialogue in the episode.

Other random note: I mentioned before that Patrick’s relationship with his father is stuck somewhere in the teen years. I kind of like it. There was a lot of “Aw, but why, Dad?” moments in this episode that made me chuckle.

Last random note: Pops also had one of the best lines. When Theresa asked how he felt about her making Patrick quit boxing, Pops responded: “I’m not gonna lie. It pissed me off.”

Lights Out: Bolo Punch

After last week’s episode, Rachel (TNIB editor and girlfriend extraordinaire) said that it’s hard to watch a show where only bad things happen. This fourth episode of Lights Out sure had its share of terrible things, as it brought the Leary family even farther down the toilet. Johnny gets into more trouble, has the butts beaten out of him, and forces Patrick to save his arse yet again. While saving his brother’s arse, Patrick gets beat down by some hired muscle/MMA fighter. The other bad things: Theresa makes a $50,000 donation pledge to help rebuild a clinic in Haiti because she doesn’t realize they don’t have any money, Theresa’s credit cards get declined and confiscated in front of the Leary daughters and their friends, Omar pulls a gun on the Leary boys and, later, quits boxing.

The list goes on, but there’s good news in all of this as well. Patrick finally had to tell Theresa they’ve lost their entire fortune, so there’s no more secrets between the two (besides his pugilist’s dementia). The timing was perfect, as I just started to think he wasn’t a good enough liar to keep hiding something of such large magnitude from his wife. It also allowed a better part of Theresa’s character to finally be revealed.

I never got the feeling that she loved Lights for his money, but seeing her packing up her jewelry to sell off for a quick buck confirms what she says about sticking with Patrick “for richer or poorer.” The mention of “apology rings” is a nice little detail that implies she’s stuck with Patrick through some other troubling incidents. I like seeing her with more dimension than the nagging wife who forced Patrick out of boxing. Also, the Leary daughters know about the money problems. Now that everyone knows, we can get past Patrick hiding things from everyone and move forward into everyone trying to make things better.

Speaking of people trying to make things better. Johnny’s a real eff-up. We can assume he bet on Omar’s fight because the huge payoff would help him fix a number of the problems he’s created. Of course he loses, because Johnny loses at everything. He’s always getting things his way in the short term (setting up risky fights/investments, hooking up with receptionists) only to fail down the line (losing money, breaking the copier with the receptionist/losing even more money). At some point, Patrick will have to lose faith in Johnny. Theresa’s already tried to tell him to cut Johnny loose, and, as loyal as he is to family, Patrick should be feeling it, too. When Lights wins his underground MMA fight and looks out at Johnny, I got the sense that Lights doesn’t want Johnny dragging him into more effed up situations like that. Meanwhile, Johnny gives a sigh of relief that immediately disappears into an expression of opportunity: he realizes Lights can still fight, which is bad for Lights, but good for the show. 

Sidenote: A good portion of the show revolved around Patrick and his father. Patrick chased his father around town, worrying that Omar had done something bad to Pops. Anytime Patrick looks uncomfortable in his own skin is good television, and their relationship seems to make Patrick very uncomfortable. Their relationship seems to have paused in Patrick’s teenage years. He gives Pops a lot of half-answers, knowing Pops doesn’t really want to know the whole truth, and he’s right. “I got this covered,” Lights tells his Dad in a dark alley in front of a bunch of scary looking dudes. Pops leaves without saying anything. Of course he knows there’s trouble, but not the whole story. 

Other sidenote: This episode provided a glimpse into the decaying world of boxing and the rising world of MMA. Since the pilot episode, I’ve been wondering how the show would deal with a sport so steadily on the decline. Patrick hints that big-name prize fights can still land a huge purse, which I suppose is still true today.