The Breakdown

After his brief trip to Las Vegas in the last episode, Siegel returns to Los Angeles in his private plane.  No sooner does the plane land, however, does Parker and the rest of the Mob Squad tell him that he’s being placed under arrest for the murder of Abe Greenburg.  Siegel is less than impressed with this and asks Parker if they plan to give him the electric chair.  Parker corrects Siegel by telling him they use the gas chamber in California.

News of Siegel’s arrest travels fast and rival mobster Jack Dragna sees it as a golden opportunity to take over some of his territory.  He tells his guys to go over to some of Siegel’s operations to show them who’s boss but makes it clear that he doesn’t want anybody killed and risk starting a war.

Parker is called in for a meeting with the mayor and the chief of police, both of whom reprimand him for jumping the gun on Siegel’s arrest.  Parker insists that he will have the evidence to put Siegel away by the time of his arraignment.  The chief informs Parker however, that Siegel’s arraignment has in fact been moved up to noon the next day making it likely that Siegel will walk.  Parker asks the mayor if he can delay it in any way but the he says he can’t and that the only thing Parker can do is get the evidence before the following day.  Left with no other options the Mob Squad puts out an APB on Sid with the hopes of getting him to flip on Siegel.

Dragna’s crew wastes no time going after Siegel’s rackets and they start by knocking over a bookmaking operation.  Things get out of hand quickly as not only do they completely trash the place but beat one guy half to death with a baseball bat.

As Jasmine is walking to her apartment, one of her neighbors tell her that Leslie had stopped by her place while she was out.  Once she enters her building she finds a blood-stained note pinned to her door.  She receives a phone from Leslie soon after and tells her that if he’s willing to use so much of his own blood to get her attention, then she should imagine how much of hers he’s willing to spill.

Ned pays a visit to an illegal casino of Siegel’s run by his casual lady friend Claire.  He assures her that despite Siegel’s arrest, nothing has changed and that she should operate like it’s business as usual until Siegel has beaten the charge.  However, when he tells her that Cohen is in charge in the meantime, she’s immediately skeptical.  As if on cue, Cohen calls Ned at the casino to warn him about Dragna’s goons and that he should beef up security before they show up.  The call comes in too late as at that precise moment, Dragna’s crew come busting through the door.

As Dragna’s guys begin laying waste to the casino, Ned decides to intervene.  Ned reasons with Dragna’s head lackey that Siegel’s customers would be very unlikely to give Dragna their business after his goons have just scared the crap of them.  The lackey agrees with this and Ned is able to persuade him that it would be better for both sides to let the patrons go before destroying the place as planned.

While the Mob Squad are moving Steckler to a safe house for protection Sid is hiding out in an unknown location playing the violin like he doesn’t have a care in the world (he’s actually pretty good with the violin).  While he’s in hiding, Sid is delivered a set of shotguns which he promptly saws off and tests on a mannequin.  The first shot blows a hole in the mannequin leaving Sid visibly satisfied with the gun.

Meanwhile, at the Clover Club, three of the Mob Squad detectives are on the roof attempting to plant a bug inside of Cohen’s office.  The plan is to drill a hole through the ceiling and hide the microphone inside of a ceiling light.  Since one of the detectives confirms the light’s glass is frosted that Cohen shouldn’t have any reason to see the mic or suspect that he’s been bugged.

While the cops are drilling the hole, Cohen is on the phone with Siegel from his jail cell.  Cohen is angry about whats been happening with Dragna but Siegel is surprisingly calm.   He tells Cohen that there is one thing Dragna didn’t count on and that’s Cohen.  He tells Cohen that the only reason Dragna pulled this stunt is because he has underestimated what Cohen is capable of.  Before he can tell him anything further a perturbed Parker cuts off his phone line.

Once Parker has gotten Siegel’s attention he tries to bluff Siegel into making a confession.  He tries telling him that the police have arrested Sid and convinced him to flip on Siegel.  Siegel sees right through this bluff saying that Sid is too smart to get caught and too loyal to ever rat on him.  To hammer the point home, Siegel says that he’s been friends with Sid since they were five years old and that Sid once took a knife for him that almost got him killed.  He claims that Sid knows he would do the same thing for him in a heartbeat, so he is far more inclined to trust Sid’s loyalty than believe anything Parker tells him.

Ned meets with Jasmine at the Clover Club where she tells him about her situation with Leslie in the hopes that he can calm him down.  When Ned asks why she didn’t just go to Joe with this problem, she says that Joe has already done too much for her and doesn’t want him to get in any deeper.  Neither of them know however that at that very moment, the Mob Squad detectives on the roof are in the process of planting their bug.  While that’s going they discuss Ned and Joe’s time in the war.  She asks him what happened when they were in Guadalcanal and Ned admits that Joe was the only reason anyone in their platoon made it back alive. Ned then convinces Jasmine to let him give her the $5,000 she needs to pay off Leslie.  Meanwhile, one of the detectives is listening to the bug and says he only hears the radio.

Jasmine meets with Leslie on a bus but he says $5,000 isn’t going to cut it anymore.  He tells her that he now  knows that Hecky’s deal was for $50,000 and not the $10,000 that he was originally told.  He’s so angry about finding out that Hecky was trying to rip him off that he tells Jasmine that he now wants the entire $50,000.  She offers the pictures she hid in the train station locker in exchange but tells him she needs to get the key from Joe.  He gives her 24 hours to get the key before he comes back for her.

Ned meets up with Bunny (Ernie Hudson), another local mobster and owner of Bunny’s Jungle Club (who also seems to be Mob City’s equivalent of Chalky) who is out for blood after it turns out that Dragna’s goons beat one of his guys to death (the same guy roughed at the bookmaking operation).  Ned suggests that Dragna and Cohen have a summit in the hopes of hashing things out.  Bunny is understandably skeptical about this proposal but Ned insists that Cohen can be a reasonable man.  Meanwhile, Cohen makes his way to one of Dragna’s businesses to rough up some of his guys and shoot up the place in retaliation for the episodes events.

Joe makes his way back to his apartment but quickly finds out that he is not alone.  Sid is already there waiting with a gun pointed at him.  Sid orders Joe to get rid of his gun and reluctantly complies.  Joe tries asking Sid why he’s there only to get brutally pistol whipped.  Sid simply says “We’ll get to that” as the screen cuts to black.

The Analysis

In a way this had the same problems as the second episode: “His Banana Majesty” felt like mostly buildup.  Every single subplot in the episode appears to be an hour-long prologue to next weeks climax.  There are wars building up between Cohen and Dragna, Siegel and the LAPD and Jasmine and Leslie but nothing has really happened with any of these conflicts so far.  However, the pay off this time around feels considerably more promising and even though nothing of significant consequence has happened so far it all feels like a mere calm before the storm.  I wasn’t as enthusiastic as I should have been going into this week but now I can’t wait for the finale.