Photo: Apple TV+
Anyone who has experienced the horrors of high school knows what Gracie has been feeling throughout her arc on Bad Monkey. Her deep discomfort with who she is and who she wants to be stems mostly from how she feels others see her and not how she sees herself. This emotional conflict has been steadily brewing throughout the series, as Gracie has vacillated between believing in who she really, truly is and casting off that persona to appear more palatable to others. So when, in the final act of this episode, Gracie finally and fully embraces her destiny as the Dragon Queen, it’s absolutely electrifying. I got legit goosebumps. Did anyone else get goosebumps?
But we’ll get to that. First, there’s a whole lot of moving and shaking on Andros as the hurricane begins to bear down on the island. After discovering that Rosa is in cahoots with Yancy, Eve and Nick create a plot to ensnare Yancy: They’ll kidnap Rosa and then, when Yancy comes looking for her, they’ll kill him. It’s a stupid plan, knowing that many other people (and the Feds) know what the Striplings are up to, but hey, Eve and Nick aren’t the brightest bulbs in Andros. They set the trap by telling Rosa that they want to leave the island with her before the hurricane hits so they can get their money in Miami ASAP.
Before heading to fly the unfriendly skies with Nick and Eve, Rosa and Yancy go to visit Neville and Dawnie. Neville has loaned his gun to Yancy, who tries to give it to Rosa. When she refuses, he sneaks it into her purse anyway with a valuable lesson to never put a finger on the trigger unless she’s going to fire the weapon. Dawnie drives Rosa to the meet in her very conspicuous red sports car, which seems like a dumb decision because Egg definitely knows that Neville is friends with Dawnie and that Neville is trying to take down his horrible bosses.
But Eve already knows that Rosa is a plant because of the picture at the fritter joint. Rosa fumbles her way through an interaction with the devilishly catty Eve, as she initially acts like nothing’s wrong and then flips into gotcha mode. Honestly, if Eve had stuck with the acting and wasn’t, you know, a total murderous sociopath, she may have actually had a future in Hollywood. Meredith Hagner continues to do amazing work as the villain with the most throughout this episode, smiling her sinister sideways smiles and barking orders at everyone around her like her tiny yappy dog Tilly.
As Eve commands Egg to grab Rosa, Yancy, and Neville run into Gracie at the fritter place. This fritter place seems to be the central hub in Andros, and I kind of want to go there? They see Gracie sitting at a table. She had been waiting to get on a flight out of Andros, but due to the hurricane, they’ve all been canceled. Gracie still likes Neville, and she’s a bit charmed by Yancy and his overt politeness, so she invites them to sit. The banter between the three characters is golden. In particular, Neville has consistently proven to be a great comedic foil for Yancy, always responding to his long-winded stories with a sharp and hilarious observation. “Bob sounds sad,” got a big laugh from me.
Once they join Gracie, Neville continues to insist that Gracie is magic, and she keeps rejecting that notion, swatting it away like a pesky fly. When Neville tells her that her curse worked and that the Striplings are poised to pay for what they’ve done, Gracie scoffs. Yancy sees that she knows more than she’s letting on, and he threatens her, which feels like a real bad idea, but Gracie is too tired and defeated to fight it. She tells them that they know about Rosa. Yancy freaks out, calling Rosa multiple times.
So Yancy runs over to Eve and Nick’s house with no plan and no weapon. I love Yancy, but c’mon, dude. Use your brain a tiny bit every once in a while, please. Nick immediately catches him snooping and pulls a shotgun. He’s about to waste him when Eve comes in, screaming. She doesn’t want him to kill Yancy in their bedroom, which is a fair point. They nudge Yancy outside, and he snatches Tilly on the way out, using her as a shield. At first, Eve is torn, but then she gives up on her beloved dog, telling Nick to shoot them both and buy her a puppy in the morning. That’s cold. Yancy knows he needs to buy himself some time, so he drops his emotional bomb: Caitlin was the one who gave her dad up. She still loves him, though, because she asked Yancy to make sure he didn’t get hurt. While Nick is reeling over this information, Neville snaps off the top of a fishing pole and drives it into Nick’s spine. Oops. Nick got hurt. Oh, this sad, sad man. His body has become like some sort of twisted Giving Tree for Eve’s machinations, and now he’s really fucked.
Neville and Yancy escape. Eve tries to shoot at them, but she’s a terrible shot. And now she has to take care of Nick. Somehow, she gets him on top of the island in their kitchen and yanks out the pole. Most doctors will tell you to absolutely not remove a large item from someone’s body until there’s a medical team present, but we’ve established that these two are idiots, so sure. A river of blood starts pouring from Nick’s back. As Eve runs to go find some sort of help, Tilly prances in Nick’s blood and licks some of it up for good measure. Is this dog a vampire? Given her well-documented lust for fresh blood, it seems possible.
Yancy and Neville plan to help Rosa, but she’s already escaped. When Egg had her hostage, she innocently asked if she could go into her purse to get a protein bar and found the gun Yancy had stashed there. But she didn’t remember his instructions to keep her finger off the trigger until she was ready to use it, and she accidentally shot Egg in the leg. Yancy and Rosa plan their exit, finding Claspers at the fritter place and getting him to agree to take them off the island as the hurricane approaches. Claspers one ask is that they take another pic together.
Earlier, Gracie had stayed at the fritter place (the hub of Andros!), moving to the bar. There, she finds a familiar face. A woman is binge drinking and gently admonishes Gracie for rejecting her magic. “Heard you say your magic isn’t real. It is,” she says before asking Gracie to walk her home. Gracie can’t quite place this woman, but she agrees, and they end up wandering over to the graveyard near Dawnie’s house. They feel a pull toward Gracie’s mom’s headstone, and the mystery woman looks at Gracie with deep reserves of regret and love in her eyes. She says some beautiful things that anyone would want to hear from their mother, including, “You are so much stronger than you know.” Gracie slowly comes to the realization that this woman is her mother and that her experience has been real. Her magic is real. Her mother’s love is real. And she is empowered to reemerge into her best self.
Ya-Ya can sense the change in the air, too. It’s implied that Ya-Ya sent her daughter to speak with Gracie as she visits Nacheline’s grave at the start of the episode. During this scene, Ya-Ya spots Dawnie’s daughter, Lulu, hanging out on her porch. She tells Ya-Ya that one of the trees in the graveyard is mad, and Ya-Ya agrees. She’s taken by this young girl, and gives her an eloquent run-down on what magic really is. She says, “Some people call it religion, some people see the magic in the water and the energy of all living things. And it’s all real. Someday, I can teach you.” It’s a lovely sentiment, and L. Scott Caldwell’s gentle yet self-assured delivery of this speech brought a tear to my eye. The idea that magic is real and that it is everywhere is delightful, and the idea that we should be reverent of everyone’s ineffable concept of what “magic” means to them is sobering. Ya-Ya offers to teach Lulu one day, and Lulu seems into it.
Later, Ya-Ya returns home and finds that Gracie has cleaned up the altar that she had smashed. The narrator intones, “She knew her queen was back.” As Ya-Ya looks around her house, Eve barges in and demands to know where Gracie is. Ya-Ya raises an eyebrow and tells her, so Eve races to a graveyard in the middle of the pouring rain, looking for help so her meal ticket doesn’t cash out on her.
As the wind and rain pick up, Yancy and Rosa approach Claspers’ plane. Yancy tries to send Rosa home so he can stay and catch Eve and Nick, but Rosa pushes back. She says that if Yancy doesn’t get on the plane, they’re done. Yancy doesn’t get on the plane. Honestly, I’m not sure what Rosa was thinking would happen here. Yancy does like Rosa a whole lot, but he’s been warning her about who he is this entire time, even as recently as that morning. When someone tells you who they are — repeatedly, blatantly, in plain English — believe them, girl.
Yancy heads back into the storm to confront the Striplings while Eve continues to seek help. Soaked and miserable, she finally stumbles upon Gracie in resplendent Dragon Queen regalia. Eve starts in with the backhanded compliments, saying “Hey, you’re wearing your costume again, that’s cool.” But Gracie has been spiritually transformed. She grins, seeming to draw power from the growing storm. When Eve asks for help for Nick, Gracie shouts, “There is nothing for him now! There is nothing for any of us!” Eve is flustered and pissed, stalking right up to Gracie to demand what she believes is hers. Gracie says she’s ready to accept her fate for taking part in the Stripling’s scheme, but Eve isn’t. She charges at Gracie, only to have her cut a bitch in the chin. Eve is stunned. The storm rages. Gracie screams, “I AM THE DRAGON QUEEN! TIME TO END THIS!”
Man oh man, what a cliffhanger. Let’s all meet at the fritter place in our hearts to discuss the final episode next week, shall we?
Monkeying Around
• I miss Evan Shook!
• After taking up a large chunk of the main narrative, Bonnie is now a footnote. She escapes prison with the help of a guard named Thomas and rides off into the sunset. But I’m hoping we’ll hear from her again in the finale.
• Dawnie and Neville sitting in a tree! Love them.
• Eve wants to put her dog’s brain in Nick’s body, which is horror-movie-level disturbing.
• Tom Petty Cover Watch: Two exceptional covers soundtrack pivotal moments in the episode. A thumping version of “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Nathaniel Rateliff plays as Yancy races to the Stripling’s house to save Rosa, and a soulful, energetic version of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” by Briston Maroney scores Yancy’s decision to stay on Andros.
