Hand to Mouth
Episode 3 of Black Bird starts with Jimmy biding his time and attempting to speak to Larry. It’s been a disorientating first week for our protagonist, who feeds back his progress to the psychologist on campus. He’s being prescribed an antidepressant to blend in with the other inmates, given everyone on the cell block are taking some form of medication. This is the best way for him to blend in. Most prisons have an element of predictability and you settle into the rhythm. Of course, Jimmy’s previous prison was exactly like this but now, in Springfield, unpredictability and random occurrences are, well, a common occurrence. This puts Jimmy in a difficult position, but the Doctor gives him his home number just in case things get hairy and he needs the guards. Jimmy continues to try and talk to Larry, but the guy blanks him. Even worse, Jimmy’s dad shows up, flashing his badge and blowing Jimmy’s cover. Thankfully the guards don’t think too much of it, given a fair few inmates also have cops as fathers. On the way back to the yard, Jimmy is encouraged to meet with Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, who’s a big-time player in the prison. He wants Jimmy to work for him, promising he’ll do pleasant time if he plays along. If not, then he’s going to find hell behind bars. Jimmy does manage to actually talk to Larry in the end, courtesy of sticking up for the guys in the TV room. He beats down a man attempting to change the TV channel and that gets him access to Larry. They talk about vehicles… until Carter, the guard from earlier, arrives. Carter speaks to Jimmy in confidence and blackmails him into submission. Given Jimmy’s father is a cop, that’s not going to go down well with Gigante. He knows Jimmy is a snitch but doesn’t know for who, so he asks for a loan of 10k in order to stay quiet and not tell the inmates. Unfortunately, Jimmy doesn’t have the money and despite using his father to try and find different hotspots it could be located, it really doesn’t look good. Lauren and Brian discuss Larry’s mental disposition and how he never mentioned a word about the killings while they were driving together. Still, that doesn’t stop them from going through the list of deaths, this time focusing on a girl called Rayna Rison. This is another of Larry’s victims, someone who was linked courtesy of the van, a ski mask and a bottle of birth control pills. Digging deeper into this, the label was apparently dubious, with no known prescription. The officer working on this case tells the pair that “Larry Hall planted fake evidence on himself for a crime no one was looking at him for.” But then we know that Larry has a twin brother don’t we? Was it really Gary responsible for this? Lauren is starting to have doubts that Larry may actually be responsible. Lauren shows up at Springfield and projects as much to Jimmy. However, Jimmy is in trouble given he needs 10k in order to stave off the guards. Not only that, but Jimmy learns Larry could actually walk free, especially if the judge decides that this was a coerced confession. It’s a precarious pressure cooker situation, as Lauren pleads with Jimmy to accelerate his timeline to find out what Larry knows.
The Episode Review
Black Bird returns with another really solid episode, one that sees Jimmy start to talk to Larry, but at the expense of his own safety. Jimmy is now stuck between the inmates and the guards, which is never a good place to be. Unfortunately, with his father blowing his cover, Jimmy is in a rough way and to make matters worse, Lauren is now having doubts over whether Larry is even guilty. It certainly seems like he’s innocent, given what we know about the case. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out it was his brother who covered the whole thing up. For now, Apple look like they have a winner on their hands with this series, which has been consistently excellent throughout its run-time. The ending certainly leaves everything open for an exciting follow-up next week.
