The second season of Paramount’s “Mayor of Kingstown” picks up after the violent riots in the Kingstown Prison. In the second episode, titled ‘Staring at the Devil,’ Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) faces an uphill battle as violence spills out in the town’s streets.
However, Mike comes out with a plan that could create peace in the town. Mike also needs to protect Iris and make some questionable choices to execute his plan. Therefore, viewers must be wondering if Mike’s plan succeeds.
Let’s find out.
1. What deal does Mike enter into with the gang leaders?
At the end of S2E2, Mike calls Evelyn Foley and ask her to press charges against the gang leaders in Kingstown. He firmly believes that the only way to control the streets is from inside the prison.
The violence will continue and it will be hard for him to broker peace in the town’s streets as long there are no leaders within the prison.
Therefore, Mike holds a meeting with Bunny and the other gang leaders. He also calls Captain Kareem Moore and Sergeant Robert Sawyer for assistance. However, on the arrival of the gang leaders, Sawyer quickly disarms them and sends the accomplices away.
Ultimately it is evident that the gang leaders do not trust each other or the correctional officers. However, Mike reiterates the situation’s urgency and forces the various fractions into an uneasy truce. Mike has the gang leaders arrested on the charges of illegal possession of firearms.
However, he promises to drop the charges with Evelyn’s help once the gang leaders control their men in the prison. The episode ends with Bunny and the other gang leaders arriving in the prison. However, Mike’s decision also has the potential to backfire.
2. Where did Iris go?
The episode’s final moments depict Mike visiting his mother’s house to check up on Iris. However, when he arrives at the house, Iris is missing from the guest room. Mike is worried about her safety and deduces that she escaped from the window. Meanwhile, viewers learn that Iris is visiting a local church.
At the church, Iris finds Milo and openly reunites with him. She exclaims she doesn’t have a home to go to. However, Milo reassures her that she has returned home. Ultimately, Iris’s lack of self-identity is identified on her return to Milo.
It also puts her at the risk of being forced into prostitution again and raises a new problem for Mike. Moreover, Milo could also use Iris against Mike to keep his nemesis at bay, further complicating matters.
We have to for the third episode to see how the story unfolds and what fate awaits Iris.
3. What to expect from Mayor of Kingstown S2E3?
On paper, maybe you can argue that there’s more of a presence around the prisoners and that could help…maybe. It’s upon Mike to figure out something, mostly because nothing has been easy on that front for him for quite some time.
HOWEVER. We all saw the preview at the end and it looks like cops have yet again gone back on their word. What’s weird is that this time it wasn’t one of the prison guards but Kingstown PD detectives (Ian) who raided a gang leader’s house.
I’m honestly so confused! Ian has been the calm and collected Detective since season 1. It doesn’t make sense for him to go back on his words and rage war against the gang leaders.
Then, of course, there is the Iris side of things. You could argue that she went to Milo to ensure Mike’s safety. But she should’ve told him if she knew of Mike’s location.
Every move that Jeremy Renner’s character makes has been a step forward and then another step back.
4. “Mayor of Kingstown” Season 2 Episode 2 Recap
The second episode, titled “Starring at the Devil,” opens with the situation outside the prisons escalating into a senseless gang war. One of the gangs is attacked and gunned down at a party, while countless acts of mass violence occur in the city.
Teenagers at the party are brutally murdered in retaliation for a different attack. Meanwhile, Mike McLusky drives Iris away from his safe house to protect her from Milo, who has escaped Kingstown Prison.
Mike takes Iris to his mother’s house. We see Kyle arguing with Mike about Iris as it could jeopardize his family. Iris, irked by Mike’s behavior tries to leave. However. Mike convinces Iris to stay at his family’s house while he deals with the situation outside.
Iris reluctantly agrees and takes the guest room. Ian calls in Mike and visits the location of the party massacre. Mike realizes that the gangs are executing people at will, and their actions hardly make sense. Mike meets one of the survivors of the killings and realizes that no one is ordering the hits.
It is nearly impossible for the police to control the streets without the presence of the proper gang leaders inside the prison needed to call the shots. Ian reveals that if the violence escalates any further, the National Guard will be forced to intervene and take control of the situation.
He stops to comfort Evelyn Foley as she is devastated by the violence.
Mike visits Bunny at his hideout to find it in lockdown. Mike discusses potential solutions with Bunny. However, Bunny thinks that the gangs lack the trust in law enforcement needed to form a truce.
On the other hand, Mike plans to send the newly elected gang leaders to prison so they can establish peace from the inside. Seeing no other solution, Bunny trusts Mike with the plan.
Elsewhere, Kyle and his new partner are on the routine patrolling ride when they are forced to pull over a truck. Kyle’s partner refuses to listen to him argue about protocol. As a result, he gets shot by the woman inside the truck. Kyle acts instinctively and is forced to shoot the woman.
Kyle regains from the incident and realizes his partner is dead and discovers the woman’s baby inside the car. As a result, he is forced to call for backup. Ultimately, Mike organizes a meeting with the four newly elected gang leaders and proposes a truce.
5. About Mayor of Kingstown
Mayor of Kingstown is a Paramount+ series created by Taylor Sheridan of the Yellowstone fame. It’s also co-created by co-creator Hugh Dillon and directed by Antoine Fuqua.
A long list of people are executive producing the show – Sheridan, Fuqua, Dhillon, Jeremy Renner, David Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari and Michael Friedman.
The cast includes Jeremy Renner, Dianne Wiest, Emma Laird, Derek Webster, Taylor Handley and Tobi Bamtefa, among others.
Mayor of Kingstown revolves around the McLusky family and their attempt of bringing law and order to a town that doesn’t have it. It tackles real world issues such as systemic corruption, racism, and equality.
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