Everybody’s Got a Cousin
The penultimate episode of Hightown shifts the focus away from Jackie somewhat and hones in on Junior instead. With a scramble to try and find him before Osito does, Hightown delivers a pretty enjoyable episode even if a lot of the drama we’re seeing here is a result of joining the already-established dots together rather than carving out a new road for itself. Episode 7 of Hightown begins with Jackie using her initiative after the tip-off about Junior’s boat. Meanwhile, Ray makes breakfast in bed for Renee after his bad dream involving Sherry. Things are getting pretty serious between them too, as Ray admits his true feelings for her and Renee reciprocates. However, it’s a little difficult to work out if she’s being honest or not given the deal she has with Frankie in place. Speaking of which, Frankie gets hold of a burner phone in prison and rings Osito, telling him he needs to “take care” of the situation surrounding the detective asking about him. Ray’s snitch inside prison is not so lucky though as he’s stabbed to death by one of Frankie’s contacts. As Ray gets hold of this news, he rallies the troops to protect who Frankie may be going after but becomes flustered when Renee arrives and drops off his jacket. Convincing her to leave, Ray tells her not to do this again as it’s a “bad look” for him. Jackie meanwhile continues to struggle getting through to Junior. While hiding out in the motel room, Junior rings his girlfriend and admits what he’s done in the past. As he breaks things off with her, Osito arrives not long after their phone call looking for Junior. Of course, she doesn’t know where he actually is and the pair leave empty-handed. As they do, Jackie arrives and speaks to her about Junior’s situation. This brings her to the motel room where she confronts Junior about dumping Sherry’s body and how he was involved. Midway through talking however, Osito arrives with Kizzle. Saving Jackie from a horrible fate, she immediately phones Ray and asks for his help. After exchanging information, Ray realizes that Junior is in serious trouble and phones through to the station for information on the car he gets into. Given how Krista phoned and Jackie was too high to pick up the call, she convinces Ray to let her tag along with the officers as they burst into the garage looking for Osito. Only, he’s obviously not there. Osito and Kizzle bring Junior out to the middle of the woods and begin questioning him and his involvement with the police. Kizzle is a complete loose cannon though and starts counting down to shoot Junior in the head. Just before he hits 3, Osito shoots him in the head. Forcing Junior to grab the axe, he cuts Kizzle’s head and hands off and buries the body with Osito. Down by the docks, Junior says his goodbyes and promises to do his best as he readies himself to go into exile. As far as Frankie knows, he’s dead and Osito promises him he’s also going to try and lay low. Ray and Jackie however manage to arrest a kid in connection with where Junior is and track down his location. As they drive off together, it turns out Ray has an equally guilt-ridden part in all this as he feels responsible for Sherry’s death after he promised to keep her safe. As Jackie and Ray arrive at their destination, the tip-off about the bus happens to be a dud as Junior is nowhere to be seen. Instead, as the camera pans across to a bathroom, Junior is slumped over lying motionless after a heroin overdose. Was this self-inflicted or has Osito played him at his own game? We’ll have to wait for next week’s finale to find out!
The Review Write-Up
Hightown hasn’t always been a series of highs (unless you count the drug and drink-inflicted states of course) but the show has had a few glimmers of decent drama dotted throughout its 7 episodes thus far. Having said that though, it’s a little frustrating that the main conflict and mystery has been resolved within a few episodes losing what could have been some interesting drama over the series. Even as far back as the opening scenes of the show we know what’s happened and who killed Sherry, losing that crucial tension needed for a show like this to flourish. It’ll be interesting to see how next week’s finale wraps things up though, especially given the ending to this one, and there’s enough here to come back and see how things are left ready for the green-lit second season.
