Ben confronts Lily by the pool about her past with Nicky Grillo. She cops to dating him in Tampa for three months, though Ben is more concerned about a potential connection to Sy, which she denies. He claims that if she’s lying about only knowing him in passing, and having met him for the first time when she was introduced to Ben, it could end up being very bad for her. Meanwhile, Ike sneaks away to have a talk with the CIA officer he has monitoring Tiberon, the same man who was listening to the Cuban rebel’s conversation with Victor on last week’s episode. The officer admits that Victor’s in pretty deep right now and Ike rushes over to his former friend’s abode to tell him everything. Apparently, Tiberon lied about what happened with Maria; rather than dying in his arms like he told Vic earlier this season, she was found caught in a fishing net in the middle of the ocean. Vic seems to believe him, but he doesn’t let Ike into the home after storming away.

When Ike returns to the Miramar, he discovers multiple police officers, who he leads out of the lobby and has a quiet chat with outside. They’re there in regards to Nicky Grillo’s body being found in the barrel and he quickly gives them the okay to search the gangster’s room, though he urges them to use the service elevator. Sensing an opportunity, Ike calls the Secret Six back into session and preaches that they need to publish another article, this time linking Grillo’s death with increased mob activity and the gambling bill. With only hours before the papers go to print, the one option they have is an editorial written by Meg; her power and influence around town should persuade citizens to the dangers of the gambling bill and be strong enough to deliver the finishing blow to the bill’s chances. Meanwhile, after hearing Antonio confess his love to her and knowledge of her pregnancy, Mercy and Vera meet in the Atlantis, where the former laments about wanting what Vera has – security in her relationship. However, Vera is more concerned about not being able to give Ike a child and the chance that Mercy could be her final chance at doing so.

The following morning, Ike gets Meg to sign her editorial and rushes it to the printers, where it runs on the front page and disrupts the vote in Tallahassee, as two men stand outside the senatorial offices and hand out papers to all who walk inside. As such, every vote that Ben bought turns against him and the bill turns out to be DOA. While Sy hears about Nicky and is forced to leave his religious services, Danny goes to Klein with one final card to play: the attentive student. He recalls the conversation they had when Klein was trying to convince him to intern at the office, where he questioned the young man about what he would do to destroy evil. Though Ike may be crooked and a whole host of other adjectives, he’s not evil, according to Danny, and using a personal vendetta to go after him would go against everything that Klein has told him, the entire reason he got into the law in the first place. That does the trick, as Klein calls Ike and accepts the deal; as long as all the information checks out, he’ll drop the charges against Ike and Sid.

Currently on an upswing, Ike tries to reconnect with Stevie by going to Madame Renee’s brothel, but he doesn’t want anything to do with his father, not after being kicked out of the Miramar. (On less of a high note is Ben, who is avoiding all contact with Sy after the vote falling apart. Unknowingly to him, Sy told Cyrus that if the vote goes down like it did, Ben was to be taken out.) His meeting with Sy on the balcony goes a tiny bit better, though, as a little reminiscing turns into the old man trying to strong-arm Ike into buying Ben’s part of the Miramar back for $10 million and giving up 40% of all money that comes into the hotel from here on. Having already offered the Chicago outfit Havana, Ike whips out evidence that links Sy with Ben, who he claims to be heading for the penitentiary once Klein gets done with him, and boasts to having a hell of a lot more where that came from. Sy may threaten to kill Ike’s family before taking him out, but if that were to happen, the boss would lose hundreds of millions of dollars, so he has to keep the hotelier alive, much to his chagrin.

However, Ike still has to pay back the money and thinks about going deeper in bed with Meg, who he’d much rather be in business with than people like Sy Berman. He wants to borrow the money from her and then pay her back on a monthly basis, but Vera doesn’t like that idea, since this isn’t just business to Meg. Ike doesn’t flinch, though, claiming that their marriage will have to be strong enough to make it and all but dismissing how uncomfortable the new arrangement makes her. Meanwhile, Vic leaves Mercy a note on the dresser and heads out to the boat where Tiberon awaits. Before setting sail, though, he badgers the rebel to tell him the story of what happened with Maria one more time. Before he can, though, Vic confronts his “friend” about lying on what happened with Maria and taking advantage of a group of men under the guise of killing Castro. The two scuffle, Victor gets shot in the stomach, and they drop into the water, where he has enough just strength to strangle Tiberon before losing consciousness in the water. One of the men on the boat dives down and brings him to the dock, where he looks at the stars (and presumably dies from his wounds).

When Ben gets interrupted by Lily from doing line after line of coke, he tells her that he won’t be going to the brothel tonight with her and urges her to take Stevie along for the ride, where she shouldn’t pay and should bring him home. While out, she tells Stevie of Ben knowing of their affair and that she thinks he plans to kill them both that night, due to his demeanor before she left and anguish over the gambling bill. Elsewhere, Ike thanks Meg for everything that she did and she agrees to reinvest into the Miramar, keeping herself on as a partner. She then kisses him.

Danny bursts into Klein’s office where he asks about the whereabouts of Doug, who stepped out of the office earlier that day under the guise of looking for files and never returned. He thinks that the man could be after Judi Silver and guides them all to the brothel of Madame Renee in hopes of catching her before he does. Sy leaves Shabbat with several of his associates and gets jumped by a gang of Ben’s men, led by Bel. Sy ends up having to kill Bel and takes a shot in the arm, only to jump into his car and be blown up thanks to the bomb that had been planted while he was inside the synagogue. Back at Ben’s, The Butcher is happily watching Lily and Stevie together when she flips him over onto his back and he fires several shots into the two-way mirror, sending Ben crashing to the floor below them. Still alive, Ben tells Stevie he’s forgiven and escapes with his life, since the gun ran out of bullets. Lily makes Stevie get out of the house as Ben continues coughing up blood.

Unfortunately, it’s too late for Judi Silver, as Doug makes it to her first and stabs her twice, leaving her for dead against the window of her room. Danny finds her and calls for someone to get an ambulance before she loses anymore blood. Back at the hotel, Vera learns from Antonio that Mercy had a miscarriage and Ike arrives home to find Danny packing his things, distraught from having to deal with what happened to Judi. He chastises his father for the lifestyle he’s involved in and tells him not to love him anymore before speeding away.

The series ends with Stevie paranoid in his hotel room and looking out to see Vera parked in her car outside his room; Klein telling a bed-bound Ben that he was too bad to die and that when he survives, he’ll stop at nothing to get him on the electric chair; and Ike drawing the Miramar on the beach by the real thing.

A true castle made of sand.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-So, as a season finale, this was a pretty strong effort, with the focus being less on the results of the bill and more on what happens afterward and how everyone responds to the latest curveball. (Also, a lot of housecleaning, in terms of ancillary players being taken out.) But as a series finale, it just makes me frustrated and reminds me of The Borgias, another abruptly canceled cable drama that didn’t have enough time for resolution. (Here’s an interview Jeffrey Dean Morgan did with Entertainment Weekly about the cancellation. Most interestingly, the extravagant sets were already paid for, so the show’s expensive aesthetic wouldn’t be a factor in the show ending.)
-Speaking of said ancillary players, I wasn’t horribly surprised about who bit the proverbial bullet (James Caan has an ABC series this summer, Judi Silver has been living on borrowed time since early season one, Victor was on the outs with Ike and left his daughter), but the ways they were bumped off were immensely well done. The gun fight-turned-car bomb made me (loudly) gasp, while Judi’s stabbing gutted me and Vic’s exit was creative and ended on a peaceful note that was more comforting than concerning. I am shocked, though, that Lily didn’t get taken out.
-Can we talk about the stretch in the show that went old guy gun fight, car bomb, Stevie shooting the mirror and sending Ben flying? Because that was amazing. And totally worth him not knowing that Ben knew all season. However, considering the show’s cancellation, I kind of wish that there had been one more bullet in Stevie’s gun and that he ran off with Lily to escape those who would look to avenge Ben’s death.
-Another disappointment in the cancellation: no more awkward Stevie/Vera sexual tension. Do you think they got it on after the final scene, where she shows up at the hotel? I think they would do it once and then she would be beside herself with regret for letting the situation with Ike cause her to act out of character.
-Is Antonio gay? My gaydar must be broken, because I never picked up on anything during the season and in his first scene tonight, the emphasis on him saying he had never wanted a woman before made me curious.
-Great shot: Ben, with an undone tie and loose collar, letting the front page of the paper waft into the pool while the camera was looking up at him.
-I really enjoyed seeing Ike go full shark on Sy on the hotel balcony, but I thought that he had fended off the old man’s desire to collect the $10 million. Or was I hearing things?
-The only person who escaped the series happy was Lauren, who is probably up in her room doing her hair or watching The Diary of Anne Frank for fun again or something. Literally every other character ended up dead or miserable due to something they can’t have.
-Thank you guys for keeping up with my Magic City coverage this summer. While I’m annoyed that we don’t get to know what happens next, I think the show grew quite a bit during this season and seemed ready to take an even bigger leap during a (hypothetical) season three, even if we (meaning me and all the beautiful people who read these recaps) would have been the only ones watching. Meet you all in the Atlantis for a drink, okay?

The post Magic City Series Finale Recap: You Really Don’t Know Me At All appeared first on TVHackr.

“We are tremendously proud of the series and everyone involved. From the writers, to the cast and crew, it has been an incredible collaboration. This was a story born from Mitch Glazer’s singular vision of Miami, the Magic City of his childhood, and we are grateful to him for bringing it to life on Starz. The season’s story arc will allow us to deliver a satisfying conclusion to the series, and we thank all the fans who checked in to the Miramar Playa,” the network said in a statement released today.

Starz has been busy ordering noisier fare in recent months, picking up a second season of Michael Bay pirate drama Black Sails six months before it airs and ordering an adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series of novels. Also in the pipeline at the network, which also ended Spartacus after three seasons, are Power (from The Good Wife‘s Courtney Kemp Agboh) and Fortitude (about a town rocked by its first ever violent crime), both of which will debut sometime in 2014. Currently the most tenured series on the network is David S. Goyer’s Da Vinci’s Demons, having premiered this past April and received a second season order after only one episode had aired.

The series finale of Magic City airs Friday at 9:00 on Starz. You can check out a recap of the most recent episode here.

Do you think that Starz made the right decision in cancelling Magic City? What would you like to see happen during the series finale? Which of Starz’s upcoming series will be the first to make it to a third season?

The post Magic City Canceled by Starz appeared first on TVHackr.

Going well for Ike, though, is the quest to take Ben Diamond out. The Secret Six have planted their first story in the paper linking The Butcher with Theresa’s disappearance and in a fury, he orders Donald to go up to Tallahassee and make sure that they don’t lose votes on the gambling bill, whose senatorial vote is set to happen in a matter of days. He tells Donald to tell Sloat if any votes are lost, he’ll cut his hand off. Since Sy will be heading into town as a result of the major hit the Chicago outfit took after Ike fixed the lottery, Ben also gets Bel to book the man the Sinatra suit in the Miramar as a kind gesture and way to keep the heat off him. Also on Bel’s list of duties is looking into Lily’s past history with Nicky Grillo, as Ben doesn’t believe that they didn’t know one another prior to their formal introduction earlier this season.

Vic meets with Tiberon and the two go onto the balcony, as the latter thinks that his hotel room is being bugged. After hearing about Vic quitting the hotel, Tiberon informs him that the guns will be leaving on Friday and that he’s welcome to join the rest of his Cuban brothers in fighting against Castro, with Antonio being capable of taking care of Mercy in the time that he’s gone. Tiberon ended up being correct that he was being bugged, but it wasn’t by Ike and it wasn’t in his room; someone heard everything that was being said on the balcony and will be using it to their advantage, likely to make a gun bust before they can get to Cuba. Ike, meanwhile, is getting questions from Vera, who thinks that he can’t afford to lose both a close friend and his son at a time like this. The hotelier, though, thinks that they’ll both be back and that he’s merely working to save what he’s spent his entire life building, so if that takes a little isolation from his loved ones, so be it.

At the conference, where the Miramar’s control over the three most profitable casinos in the Western hemisphere is announced, Ben arrives and watches, locking eyes with Ike in the process. While Vera gets an address from the bartender and quickly leaves, Stevie is overseeing the finer details of the club interior, including the installation of a two-way mirror and one prostitute’s informal resignation after her father decides to run for the governorship of New Jersey. Across town, Danny goes to see Judi at her place with the news of a manicurist position opening up at the Miramar. She takes it that he’s trying to “save her” when in actuality, she’s the one who wants to save him and the two end up having sex on the couch, which Stevie walks in on. He came to Judi’s to tell her of the opening at Madame Renee’s and in the process, scares Danny, who is upset at her taking Stevie up on the offer, away. While the money is nice, the real reason she’s working there is because he and Ben can keep Doug away from her, which she couldn’t have gotten at the beauty salon.

That night, Stevie gets paid a visit by Vera while getting high and looking through potential girls to add to the club; the address she got from the bartender was the hotel room he was staying in. She tries to convince him that Ike loves him (and to come home), which he acknowledges. However, he feels as if Ike is only acting at being a father and at being a husband when his main passion, his main love in life is the Miramar. After getting his stepmother a drink, he asks her what Ike would do if the choice was between devastating her by associating with Meg or using Meg’s millions to save the hotel; when she doesn’t answer, he got the answer he was looking for. She tries to leave, only for him to recount the time he saw her topless on the balcony and how that “froze” him. He again halts her right before she exits the room and tells her that next time she comes there, it better be for him.

Judi finds Danny’s room at the hotel and comes clean about why she decided to work with Stevie and the history she has with Doug, who forced her to write an inaccurate statement about Ben. Danny, however, merely tells her that since he works for the state’s attorney, there’s no way he could be seen with a prostitute and defends his brother when she brings his nefarious activities up. Sy checks into the Miramar and Ike brings along the 5-year contracts he signed to run the Cuban casinos, totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of hundreds of millions. The Chicago boss won’t budge on Ben, though, and Ike promises that they’ll meet again after the gambling vote on Friday, no matter which direction the ruling goes.

Klein has Ike’s lawyer in and informs him of the fact that he knows about Minneapolis Mutual being a shell operation for Izzy Mangold, Ben’s childhood friend and current business partner, and where the money from St. Moretz Management goes. He also has logs from the payphone next to the lawyer’s office, which have conversations between him and Ike and him and known associates of the Chicago outfit. After threatening to have him disbarred or buried in a penitentiary crypt, Klein sends him out, where he sees Danny going into the office. He’s there to confront Klein about Doug and attempt to turn the focus of the state’s attorney from Ben to Ike; considering what happened to his daughter, Klein isn’t budging on his plan to bring down Ike, but he decides to use the information obtained from Judi Silver and let Doug hang himself rather than busting him.

Ben meets with Sy and gets an earful about drawing attention to himself, losing the $2 million, and the disappearance of Nicky Grillo, which Ben claims to not know anything about. The Butcher tries to win points by claiming to have Ike in his pocket, that he was responsible for getting the hotelier on at Havana, but Sy doesn’t seem to believe him and might be waiting for Ben to finish himself off. Sloat claims to have only lost a couple of nervous nellies, with the votes still solidly in their favor, so perhaps Ben isn’t down and out quite yet; there’s still several days left, though, and a lot of time for momentum to shift.

While Vera tells Mercy the story of her first marriage, which took place when she was 12 years old and could have been the reason she didn’t have children, Lily sees that the money she’s been storing has been touched and goes to Ike, where she gives him the log she’s been keeping and tells him to “kill the bastard.” The following morning, Nicky Grillo’s dismembered body, welded into a barrel that was later shot full of bullets, washes up on shore.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-The song playing when Vera comes back from Stevie’s is Nat King Cole’s “To Whom It May Concern”, while the song over the ending montage (Ben watching Lily cry to Stevie, Klein smirking while being in the elevator with Doug, Ike on the balcony) is Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign”. Related, this show has a wonderful soundtrack that greatly helps its already well-established atmosphere.
-Finale death pool time: I’m calling at least three major deaths. Lily has been marked for dead since early in the season (see also: Stevie’s vision at the club of her killing herself); with Vic gone and Vera gunning for her baby, I could see Mercy dying and the baby surviving (or Vic dying, further tying her to the Evans family); and at least one person associated with Ben Diamond. A lot of the talk going into this season was that either Ben or Ike won’t survive, so Ben could also be on his way out, likely as a part of a bittersweet trade-off with Ike (i.e. Ike thinks he’s won the war, but something bad will happen to make his victory less sweet.)
-I think I like Danny more with Judi than Mercy, if only because I think Judi challenges him more as a person and the two have more chemistry. Mercy’s sparse role in the second season hasn’t helped her case at all, pregnancy or no pregnancy.
-As much of a bastard as he may be, and as much as he shouldn’t blame Ike for what happened to his daughter, Klein unfolding the case he has against Ike to his lawyer was kind of brilliant. A very chilling warning shot and something for Ike to have in the back of his mind.
-So, they followed up on the incest-y thread that was established last season. I thought it was going to be something they dropped, especially since Vera and Stevie have rarely been in the same scene together, so good for them for coming back to it. It still made me giggle, but at least all that sexual tension between them in the hotel room didn’t go to waste. Also, don’t get high, kids, because it’ll make you want to have sex with your stepmom.
-Sy’s only purpose this season has been to yell at Ben, but I’m okay with that. James Caan does “cranky old guy” quite well.
-Vera’s story about her marriage makes her the second most interesting character on the show, following Judi Silver at #1. I would definitely have watched Magic City had it been from her perspective.
-Wouldn’t it be something if, after everything Ike’s done to put Ben away, Lily turns out to be the one who delivers the kill shot?
-Next week on Magic City: The outcome of the gambling bill is decided, while Klein contemplates Ike’s offer to dispatch The Butcher.

The post Magic City Season 2 Recap: Know Your Local Butcher appeared first on TVHackr.

Meanwhile, Stevie’s DJ convention is getting into gear and has already made the Miramar booked up in July, traditionally their slowest month. However, everyone from the photographers to the singers and record label executives are loud, reckless (one man asks to get a boat and a female water skier in the hotel pool), and make Ike extremely anxious of the damage to come from their time at the hotel, impossible to enjoy a movie with Lauren and Vera. Also troubling him is Ben’s presence, especially once he sees that The Butcher is still rather friendly with Stevie, something he explicitly forbade his son from doing.

Ike approaches Ben and the two talk in private, where the former asks about Theresa Suarez’s disappearance and what Ben may know. Unfortunately, Ben doesn’t claim to know any Theresa Suarez, claiming that she probably ran off with a guest or something; he does, however, tell Ike that he thinks the Havana hotels are his, which upsets Ike, seeing as how Castro’s men could overhear their conversation and blow the deal for him. At one of the bolitas, Cisco places his money down and has to get an executive approval from the bolita owner before his wager gets approved. He has to concoct a story about how his mother recently died and came to him in a dream to tell him to sell everything and use the money at the bolitas on her birthday, but he manages to get his bet approved and make it out to the car in one piece.

Danny goes to Judi and asks her about why Doug has taken such an interest in getting her out of time. She says she’ll only talk over an Irish coffee and once the two get to the bar, Danny inquires about whether his father killed Jimmy Shoes. Whether it be the brandy or her hatred of secrecy, Judi confesses that he saved her life and she’s grateful that he did, irking Danny even with the self-defense angle. She bets that he would have done the exact same thing, had he been in Ike’s shoes. While Ben receives a visit from Senator Sloat, who he sends running back to Tallahassee after hearing concerns about harming innocents, Ike has a meeting with the Secret Six where he expresses interest in avenging Theresa’s death by using the information she gave him to build the case against Ben. There’ll be an article written about her in one of the newspapers, a sort of “whatever happened to…?” type of piece, that will be published alongside a profile of Ben Diamond, as suggested by Meg.

Back at the hotel, the photographers are swarming and Susie Klein has decided to skip the meeting with her father at his office and check out the convention. Almost as soon as she gets there, she runs into Ira, an executive from Geneva Records who charms her into giving him her demo and agreeing to meet him at the Atlantis at 1:00. He promises that her favorite singer Peggy Lee would be there to perform, but once she agrees to go and the two part, he chucks her tape into the garbage. Later, after receiving a cigarette and a kind word from Ray Ray, Vera meets with Mercy and hears the news that she definitely wasn’t expecting: the young girl is pregnant. With Danny’s baby. And doesn’t want to keep it. Although she’s never had a child herself, she still sympathizes with what Mercy’s going through and lets her cry on her shoulder.

Out of Judi’s place, she expresses regret in telling Danny about Ike and the two flirt about the color of his “true blue” eyes. He uses the opportunity to ask her about Doug again and she decides to leave, but not before telling him that she wants to take this one secret at a time. I mean, she has to have some reason to see him again, right? Ike meets with Vic in his office and the two have an argument about the presence of El Tiberon at the Miramar, which Ike doesn’t like and Vic deems a necessity, at least for now. Once he’s alone, Ike turns on the radio and hears the numbers in the Cuban lottery being read and, as expected, he gave his men the right combination of numbers to take their $3,000 and increase it to $200,000 each. While Bel is overwhelmed at the amount of money being paid out at the bolitas (and the amount of calls he receives), every one of Ike’s men makes it out safely, except for Cisco, who gets stopped by Butterball and has a confrontation with him that ends in a gun being fired.

Susie shows up to the Atlantis expecting to see Peggy Lee and finding a loud, alcohol-fueled party instead. Ira insists that Peggy heard the demo and loved what she found and after a few drinks (and one little red pill), takes her to a crowded hotel room where a cunnilingus competition is going on. Sensing something is wrong, she tries to leave, only to be stopped by him and brought into the nearby bathroom. The maid finds the two on the floor of the room and runs out to find help. Both Danny and Stevie come running to the room when they find out what’s going on and while Stevie punches a few people to try and clear the room, Danny finds Susie completely out of it on the bathroom floor and being raped by Ira. The record guy leaves and Danny performs the CPR that she needed to survive, though she’s not in good shape.

The battle between Ike and Ben has now turned its focus to Cisco, as the former is going with Vincent to try and nab him from Butterball’s guys and the latter, who stops what could have been Lily’s escape attempt, is expecting Mike to deliver the better to his doorstep. Ike and Vincent get the upper hand when Vincent takes out of the two men holding Cisco and Ike maims the driver of the vehicle that had been circling the block, grabbing their man and speeding off amid a series of shots from Butterball’s shotgun. Ben is, of course, furious about losing to Ike once again and pulls a gun on Bel out of frustration. The bookie tries to calm his friend (and boss) down by saying that it wasn’t him he was responsible for what happened; it was likely someone who knows Castro and is around the Cubans. Ben thinks that Santo is involved and that, by extension, Nicky Grillo is, too. It’d make sense, this being payback for the arms deal bust from last week’s episode.

Ben sends his men to snatch Nicky from his hotel room and invites Lily to come into the study to see their guest, whose face was beaten nearly beyond recognition and whose blood was all over Ben’s steam machine. Ben threatens to cut Nicky’s entire face off with one motion and Nicky simply asks him to check in with his “whore”, a woman he says is always working. After mentioning that Ben should also ask Lily about Al, Nicky responds to The Butcher’s threats with laughter and taunts before Lily pulls a gun and shoots him in the head herself. Ben is upset because he didn’t get the information out of Nicky that he wanted to. Lily’s response? She was just so upset at all the things Nicky was saying about Ben. He curiously asks her about whether this was the first time she had met Nicky before excusing her from the study.

Danny meets with Klein at the hospital and gets commended for taking the actions needed to save Susie’s life. But even with her stomach being pumped and everything seemingly okay, the state’s attorney is infuriated about whatever happened taking place within the confines of the Miramar. He vows to destroy Ike, even if he has to die trying. Back at the hotel, Danny fills Ike in on the events of the evening, including that Jack Klein’s daughter was raped in the bathroom of one of their room. Ike storms into the hotel and has a major altercation with Stevie, telling him that he’ll always only be a bartender and that he’ll be a bartender until he says otherwise. Stevie then leaves the hotel, possibly for good.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-I’m not quite sure why Vera and Lauren were going to watch The Diary of Anne Frank together as part of a mother-daughter bonding moment. (Unless it was to be followed up by a serious discussion about the events of the movie, what they meant for their religion, and how what happened on screen made her feel, but that doesn’t sound like a fun activity for a kid.) Thankfully it was called off and Lauren’s friends got to have their makeup done by a real professional dancer.
-In case you weren’t sure, Butterball was played by rapper Rick Ross, who was such a big fan of the show that creator Mitch Glazer wrote him a small role.
-It feels like the show is setting Danny up as the bad guy in his relationship with Mercy, as they threw in her being pregnant just as he was getting closer to Judi Silver. Is there a chance that they would have Mercy decide not to follow through with the pregnancy and get an abortion without telling Danny about her condition first?
-One of my favorite parts of the second season has been the introduction of the Secret Six, mostly because I’m interested in the type of string pulling that goes on behind the scenes of major cities and how a select group of people can alter the mood for millions. It’s also a nice way to bring Ike and Meg together, as well as give Ike something proactive (and frankly, very smart) to do away from the Miramar.
-I loved the sequence with Ike and Vincent extracting Cisco from custody and bringing him to the boat on time. Magic City doesn’t do a whole lot of action, but when they put something like this in, it’s always very effective and stylishly shot.
-So, Nicky died. I didn’t expect that before the season finale since we hadn’t spent much time with him. I do think this direction could be good, though, as Lily unintentionally drew suspicion to herself with the shooting and could have sealed her fate worse by what she did vs. had she let Nicky talk. I still don’t think there’s any way she escapes this season alive, though.
-Awesome argument between Ike and Stevie at the end of the episode. It very much felt like a father-son fight, the resentments and the held tongues spilling forth in a moment of anger.
-The phrase cunnilingus contest is the best. I believe my career of writing about television has peaked. It’s all downhill from here, I think.
-At Starz’s TCA session, they wouldn’t confirm whether or not Magic City is renewed for another season, but surprises were promised for the remainder of the season. Any guesses? I think a big one will be that either Stevie or Danny won’t survive to a third season.
-Next week on Magic City: Ike’s relationship with Victor is impacted by his plans to run the Havana hotels, while Sy Berman shows up in Miami and Stevie’s position with Ben begins.

The post Magic City Season 2 Recap: Bacchanalian Disc Jockeys Gone Wild appeared first on TVHackr.

Ike and Sid sit outside one of Miami’s biggest bolita houses and discuss the plan to fix the Cuban national lottery, which Ike thinks will allow Castro to hit the mob hard and give him both the good faith money he needs and the Cuban casinos he desires. Meanwhile, Danny is at Klein’s office being yelled at for interfering in the raid that killed Alberto Lazaro, a guy who worked in the kitchen at the Miramar and was one of Vic’s cousins. Klein threatens the intern with obstruction of justice charges and Doug (the guy Danny hit and who shot Alberto) simply threatens him, even with Danny claiming that the reason he did what he did was the acquire information from Alberto about why he was there in the first place. Klein then tells him he’s not to come back into the officers until he’s told and that he’s forbidden from talking about the ongoing investigation.

However, as Danny’s leaving, Klein catches up with him and tells him that not only will he see Alberto’s face after watching the man be shot to death, he should make it about something. Use what he saw to further where he’s at, but Danny seems apprehensive about becoming that devoted to the law. Regardless, Klein tells him to be at the office first thing tomorrow morning, as they’ll continue working on the case.

At the Miramar, Vic is talking to the staff about what happened to Alberto and how they should get their grieving out of the way now before focusing on why he died and, more importantly, what he died for. He’s also more than a little perturbed at Ike, thinking that his boss only considered Alberto’s loss to be another hire he has to make, while Ike goes and breaks up Ben’s poker game due to the other bartender not being able to make it in. Stevie reluctantly complies and Ben informs Ike that he’s become very tiresome lately and that he knows about the Castro casino deal. He then offers to install Eddie in Havana to run the casinos while giving Ike his hotel back for 40% gross management costs. Ike’s response? Telling Ben to stay away from his son.

Danny makes it to Alberto’s funeral where he’s introduced to Antonio and quietly takes Mercy aside to tell her that he was there when Alberto died and where Alberto was when he was gunned down. Mercy gets quite upset at the revelation and throws him out of the funeral, just before Antonio comforts her at the casket. Meanwhile, Vera is having to see a doctor due to fluid buildup in her knee, which is only removable through a temporary, rather painful draining. She urges him to go ahead and do it because she has a show tonight and he reminds her that she’s putting her body through too much and that it’s tearing itself apart, causing her to cry on the table she was laying on.

Ben brings Madame Renee (and Brigitte, a Swedish prostitute with a fetish for being on a leash) out to the construction site for her new brothel, set to be strictly for worldly elites and men with deep bank accounts and deeper pockets. Her partner in this new business venture? Stevie, as Ben has named him co-manager of the as-yet-unbuilt building. Renee is upset at the blindside, considering that her goal is to clear (at minimum) $10 million a year, while Stevie doesn’t think he’s got enough experience to take on something like this, regardless of his experience at Madame Renee’s establishments. Ben tells him that management is in his blood and uses his recent stumbles with Ike as leverage, warning him that if he doesn’t walk through the open door in front of him, he would be doomed to a safe, comfortable life full of tourists, the same women, and not much excitement.

While Ike sees Vera on the balcony that night and comforts her over the loss of her dance career, Ben watches Lily masturbate in her bed and gets irritated that she’s not with Stevie. The only thing that’s keeping her alive anymore is the sexual satisfaction her affair with the bartender brings him and he gruffly informs her that long ago are the days of watching her pleasuring herself being enough; he can’t get it up without watching her with another man and if she’s going to survive long enough to use the money she’s been building up, she’s got to find a way to make Stevie come back to her. Ben then lays in bed with Lily, who goes to the Miramar later that night to try and convince Stevie to continue their time together. He, however, doesn’t want anything to do with her and questions why she chose him in the first place, considering her history. She mentions that the first time she saw his face, all she wanted to do was touch it and that she loves him and would have died for him. She still might, she adds, before leaving.

Ben goes with Antonio and several other of the Cubans to test the machine guns and mortars they acquired. He assures them that he’s an ally to be trusted and later deals with a frustrated Nicky, who lost four guys and $50 thousand in the raid; Ben wishes him a safe trip back to Tampa, thinking that he finally got rid of who could have been one of his greatest threats. While Ike finds out that Theresa has been killed, Eddie attempts to win Vera over with compliments and promises of her own room at Ike’s new casino. However, she had no idea about the casino’s existence and doesn’t wish to be called “Vera Cruz” anymore, nor can she entertain the thought of opening an entire room on her own, given her just-finished dance career.

She leaves and confronts Ike about the casino, which he claims is none of her business due to how he provides for her and protects her. Vera responds that she’s more than the face or the body that he fell in love with; she’s a complete person/wife/partner who went through a lot when she came to the United States at 14, someone who grew up in a society that didn’t place a high priority on secrets. He comes clean on the face that Ben is the minority partner at the Miramar, but he promises to fix the situation and get The Butcher out of their lives for good.

Ike goes to the bar where Stevie is and apologizes for acting as if he was a partner or employee rather than his son. Stevie presses him on the plan for him, that he’s ready to make big moves now vs. having to wait for Ike’s signal, and Ike mentions that the DJ convention is his – Bernie at the Americana was upset at having it stolen and now Stevie will be working under Victor and Vince to see it through. It’s a major vote of confidence, trusting Stevie with the Miramar, but there’s one caveat: no more Ben. And that’s not a choice.

The hotelier then meets with the new Secret Six and with Meg’s help, tries to convince them the value of using their resources to crush the mobsters that have infiltrated Miami. Printing Ben Diamond’s picture in the paper, for example, would cause the politicians and hit men that he’s in cahoots with to go running, leaving him isolated, exposed, and vulnerable. The meeting seems to go well and Ike celebrates with Meg over a drink, where she mentions her trip to Marakesh and the fact that you always seem to end up back where you started. Meanwhile, Danny is brought along on another raid, this time by Doug. The target? A camera club holed up in the Miramar, who are shooting fetish shots that star Judi Silver. After threatening her, Doug leaves the prostitute tied up and forbids Danny from offering her a helping hand.

Also at the Miramar, Ben threatens Lily over Stevie during a massage and that night, he sees her having sex with a lean 20-something with dark hair. However, it’s not Stevie; Lily got someone who looks exactly like Stevie to have sex with her and has to make sure he doesn’t show his face, as she knows that Ben is watching. The episode closes with Ike receiving the lottery numbers from Minister Nunez and Bel encasing Theresa’s body in the cement that will hold up Madame Renee’s latest establishment.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-So, Theresa was alive, everybody. Hmm. The way the last episode looked, she was dead, but the way they actually killed her off (and buried her) was more effective, so I’m okay with the ambiguity.
-What do you think Klein’s plans for Danny are? I know one of the main reasons he even got the position was his connection to Ike and the idea that Klein could turn him against his father; it just feels like there’s something more there, that Klein is waiting to spring something once he knows he has Danny’s trust.
-The show has done quite well by Vera this season. I like everything about her dancing career and coming to terms with being The Wife quite a bit, as well as Olga Kurylenko’s delivery of/backbone during “Then get a new wife.”, which was thrilling to see.
-Madame Renee’s “would you like to walk her?” and line about Stevie’s virginity story “warming what’s left of my heart” were close runner-ups for my favorite line of the episode. Also, what do you think the casting call for Brigitte looked like?
-I kind of thought that Ike seeing Vera again on the balcony would be another dream and that they would gradually reveal something about his wife to his subconscious that he didn’t know/wasn’t aware of.
-Clarity on Ben’s sexual appetite – awesome. He doesn’t just get a thrill out of being cuckholded; he has to see Lily with another man in order to get it up. Is his whole persona a way to make up for those feelings of inadequacy?
-The shots of Ben in the pool talking to Nicky were gorgeous. If you can say nothing else about this show, it’s one of the best shot on television and was absolutely robbed of technical Emmy nominations.
-Vera’s mention of “doing things” to survive when she first landed in America – do you think she was a prostitute?
-Next week on Magic City: Stevie’s DJ convention invades the Miramar, while Mercedes reveals news to Vera and Ike continues his scheme to fix the Cuban lottery.

The post Magic City Season 2 Recap: A Dream in Tatters on the Sand appeared first on TVHackr.

This is especially dangerous for Ike, because if Sy talks to Ben about Ike making a move, the hotelier (and his family) will be in quite a bit of danger. Stevie is making plays of his own at Ben’s poker game, as he bets (and eventually wins) a 2000 DJ convention for the Miramar from a short-handed red-headed ventriloquist at the table. The convention, a strong income generator that will have the hotel booked solid for four days in what is typically their slowest month, However, when he brings the good news to Ike after getting two hours of sleep, he gets rejected on account of the convention (typically held at the Americana) being awful for PR, generating sizeable cleanup costs, and resulting in arrests. The other men in Ike’s camp think it could be feasible, though, but Ike isn’t budging, not even when Stevie reminds his father that he never asks for anything.

While Vera has continued to inject herself to keep her energy up, impressing her choreographer with her stamina and how closely she resembles her old self, Eddie has come to Ben’s to complain about Ike’s resistance to his takeover of the Miramar. The Butcher suggests using a false ceiling like the one he has in his home rather than a ladder man to catch potential cheaters and promises Eddie that things will be taken care of. Mercy and Danny, for their part, are on decidedly different paths; she’s getting more in touch with her homeland thanks to Antonio introducing her to Cuban cigars and he’s being sucked further into the orbit of Jack Klein, thanks to seeing the mountain of evidence the attorney has against his father. When the two finally get some time together, following Mercy being sick in the bathroom, he expresses discomfort at her not working at the Miramar anymore. However, she mentions that she wants to focus on helping the wave of Cubans who have recently arrived in the city and doesn’t seem too interested in him not wanting her to leave.

Theresa overhears Bel delivering money to Senator Sloat, money that is meant for his colleagues and should help the gambling bill pass. She jots the names down with her eyebrow pencil while in the bathroom and stores them away for the next time she sees Ike. Meanwhile, Vera lets her nerves for the impending opening of Havana Fire impact her appetite, resulting in Ike having a nightmare where he finds her bleeding and she jumps off of the balcony, and Lily opens a secret compartment in Ben’s study where stacks of money are located. Careful not to make too much noise, she takes several of the stacks and puts them into her purse; just when she thinks she’s gotten away, she runs into Nicky in the hallway, where he’s having a disagreement with one of Ben’s staff members over cigars. She sends the staff away and Nicky mentions that money suits her and asks her if she still walks around without any panties on. He tries to see for himself when the staff member comes back with the cigars, allowing Lily to leave. She ends up in a closet where she stores the money she took and chronicles her additional income in a journal.

Inez comes to Ike’s office, panicking that Arthur has been gambling all of their money away in the bolitas. Ike goes outside to talk to him and his father mentions that the lottery, to him, is sacred and something above all the corruption and darkness that has been invading their city recently. The hotelier then gets an idea and goes to call Minister Nunez; in order to drive the gangsters out of Cuba and recoup some of the money they’ve taken from her, they’re going to institute a Cuban National Lottery.

Ben catches Lily in the closet she stores her money in and she just barely manages to keep everything hidden, as he nearly takes down the boxes that hide the vent she’s using. Before long, he’s interrupted by Bel, who brings news of Ike seeking the million and control of Cuban casinos. Back at the Miramar, Nicky’s at the Atlantis commiserating about the woman he claims broke his heart. He tells Stevie about the way they met (she used his cigarette to light hers one night in Hernando Beach) and what she told him when they met (that she was the wrong woman), two things that Lily did with Stevie; he goes on to mention her “Ava Gardner” beauty, confirming to Stevie that Lily had a thing with Nicky.

The night of Vera’s performance, the Cuban arms deal in Hialeah is broken up thanks to Ben, who calls his federal contact and gains some brownie points in the process. Danny goes along for the ride with Jack and the rest of the attorney’s office and amid the flurry of arrests, sees a Cuban man he locked eyes with shot in the back with a shotgun while trying to run away. He ends up not showing at the Miramar, furthering distancing himself from Mercy, who already has her eye on Antonio. For her part, Vera was rather nervous about taking the stage and after talking with Ike, she comes out with guns blazing in her performance. Beforehand, Ben let Ike know that he knew about the million, but during, all eyes were on Vera channeling the Vera Cruz of yore with a routine that started sparse and conservative (both in attire and movement) before running wild. The curtain behind her dropped, more background dancers filled the stage, and she took off her librarian-ish clothing to reveal an almost tribal ensemble underneath that went along with her curled mane. She receives a wonderful reception and gets flowers from Lauren for her effort.

In Senator Sloat’s hotel room, Theresa is in the bathroom trying to write down more names, only for Bel to bust the door open and kill her with a punch to the face.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-Although flashbacks aren’t always a guarantee of good storytelling, I think they added a lot to the Ben/Sy/Ike dynamic, in that Ike has had to align himself with the man who killed his father in order to eliminate Ben from the Miramar. That’s almost Shakespearian in scope and depth, another sign of how good this season has been.
-Seeing Ike not fall all over Stevie’s plan was interesting, if only because I don’t think that tension will go away and could manifest itself in other ways later this season. (As will Danny’s experience in the arms raid, which will either send him running back to Ike or firmly cement him in Klein’s camp.)
-Here’s some information about Farouk of Egypt, who Ben mentioned tonight while in the pool.
-What do you think about Mercy’s illness in the bathroom? Related to the cigars from Antonio? Or could she be pregnant? With all of her newfound national pride, I get the feeling she’ll head with Antonio to Havana and join the rebellion like her mother did.
-So Olga Kurylenko is a beautiful, talented actress who can work a stage quite well, apparently. I thought her performance was fun and cross-cutting between it and Danny’s ordeal was visually (and thematically) strong. (Case in point: seeing the Cuban’s body on the ground, fading into Vera being held up in the same position by her background dancers.)
-Is Lily looking to accumulate enough money to make a run for it? After the confrontation she and Stevie had before Vera’s performance over Nicky, I think she might have to go it alone.
-Ike was introduced to Miami News man Tim Cox and Elizabeth Moore of WMIY Radio by Meg, members of the Secret Six. Is the combination of Cuba, Sy, and Meg going to be enough to bring Ben down?
-Next week on Magic City: Ike and Meg grow closer, while Vera has a revelation about her dancing career and Ben makes Stevie a tempting offer.

The post Magic City Season 2 Recap: Pray That Nobody Gets Killed appeared first on TVHackr.

Listed below are the times, titles, recaps, and descriptions of the three-episode Magic City marathon.

9:00 p.m. – “Crime and Punishment”
In the Season 2 premiere, Ike faces a murder rap and his family tries to raise bail money, which leads them to discover just who his silent partners are. Meanwhile, Ben is concerned that Ike will fold under pressure and offers to help.

10:00 p.m. – “Angels of Death”
Ike’s dicey plan to rid the hotel of Ben Diamond is set in motion, while at the same time, Ben requests permission to put a hit on Ike. Later, Stevie and Lily go on an actual date; and Meg threatens Vera.

11:00 p.m. – “Adapt or Die”
Ike retrieves Maria’s ashes in Cuba and sets in motion a plan to rid himself of Ben, while Stevie gets more involved with the crime boss. Later, a sluggish Vera struggles to get through exhausting rehearsals and Stevie offers a peppy pick-me-up.

Magic City airs Fridays at 9:00 on Starz.

What have you thought about the second season of Magic City thus far? What do you hope happens during the remaining five episodes of the season? Will Ike’s plan to get rid of Ben work or is he stuck with The Butcher until one of them gets killed?

The post Magic City Marathon to Air Friday, July 5th on Starz appeared first on TVHackr.

At the Diamond residence, Ben awakes, disgusted at the events of the night prior and the position he finds Lily in that morning. While he takes a steam, he tells her that he wants her to get back with Stevie, with Bel coming in right after to talk about the Nicky Grillo situation. Grillo and his men are responsible for lifting quite a few guns from the Tampa armory and intend to sell them to Cuban rebels looking to overthrow Castro, something that worries Ben, particularly when it comes to the state of their casinos and his standing with Sy. However, Ben shouldn’t be as concerned, considering that the weapons Grillo is trying to move are World War II-era and the Cubans he’s selling them to aren’t exactly impressed; they want Korean-era and a whole lot more at that, so for now, there’s no deal.

Ike’s meeting with Minister Nunez doesn’t go well and his attempts to persuade her to go into business with him by talking of the thousands of jobs that a hotel would bring go mostly ignored or rebuffed. However, before he leaves, she tells him that she’ll check him out and that a collaboration isn’t out of the question. Meanwhile, Ben suggests that they plant someone they trust near Nicky’s place and give the bust to the DEA, keeping their hands clean in the process and currying favor with the agency that could come in handy later. While at the Miramar, Stevie walks in on the meeting with Ben and Bel and the former talks of how impressed he was by how Bel’s life was saved. The Butcher inquires about Stevie’s ambitions, which are currently tending bar and waiting to assume the mantle of Miami King when Ike passes, and makes him an offer to work as the dealer in his weekly card games. Stevie would be able to collect around $1,000/week and he’d still be in the Diamond orbit, so he accepts and the first game begins right then, once Lily approves the hire and gives him a vote of confidence.

While Ike retrieves Maria’s ashes from the courthouse, Vera’s dance practice finds her cramping and unable to keep up with the choreography she needs to perform when the show opens in six weeks. Being that this already has her irritated, it’s no surprise that she has a confrontation with Meg, especially since the latter bought Lauren quite a bit of clothes without asking Vera. The Evans family has done what they can to keep Lauren from becoming spoiled or taking what they have for granted, so Vera reasserts her status as Lauren’s mother and sends a message that Meg was out of line. Across town, Danny meets Jack Klein’s daughter Susie before going into his meeting with the state’s attorney, with whom he wants to intern. However, he has to answer questions about where his loyalties lie and how he would respond to illegal activity perpetrated by those he loves; Klein has faith in Danny, considering he’s still in the hunt for the job after Ike was arrested, but he has to prove to his constituents that the boy can be trusted. He then takes Danny over to the Diamond District, a stretch in Miami that is ran by Ben and consists of teenage hookers, a plethora of homicides, and children addicted to heroin, all of which make The Butcher richer. This opens Danny’s eyes to just how much power Ben has and how much pain he brings to the people of Miami. If there were any doubts in his mind about pursuing the internship, they were vanquished by the trip down skid row and up to the Diamond mansion, where Ben is once again watching Stevie and Lily have sex.

After meeting Jack Ruby on the plane, Ike surprises Vera by arriving home and gives her a foot rub that turns into welcome home sex. The following day, Danny heads back to the Diamond District and sees things he had only looked over before. He gets approached by Judi Silver, who doesn’t notice that he’s Stevie’s little brother until she’s right at the car window, and invites her into the car to talk – for the price of $20 upfront and a foot rub. Danny quickly turns the subject to Jimmy Shoes and Ike’s presence in the Everglades that night, which Judi won’t confirm and questions why he wants to know so badly; he then goes to Ike’s office and informs his father that he took the job from Klein, as he believes in both the state’s attorney and the letter of the law. Ike calls Klein a “self-serving hustler” and Danny forcefully tells his father that he believes that people can choose between right and wrong, a not-exactly-veiled criticism of the world in which the Evans family has made their fortune.

If that wasn’t enough for Ike, Ben has sent casino man Eddie Bloomberg (or Eddie Blue) to begin planning the renovations the Miramar needs once the gambling bill passes. According to Eddie, it’ll likely be passing sometime during the summer and they’re trying to have things up and running for a holiday launch. Although he promises to double profits, Eddie is thrown out of the hotel by Ike and Sid later informs his boss that Blue has an impeccable police record that helps him serve as the face that protects his establishments from investigation. With Sloat influencing the vote and a new partner implemented without his permission, Ike’s control over Miami is lessening by the day and could evaporate once the bill has passed. Ben’s plans, though, are to become the first and best casino to open once the bill passes in order to seize hold of the market; Ike’s main concern with the gambling bill is that he doesn’t want to spend a tremendous amount of money for renovations for the bill to not pass.

While Stevie convinces a physically exhausted Vera to try a “vitamin” shot from Dr. Bobby under the guise of it being a Kennedy favorite, Ike gets Theresa to be on the lookout for important names/dates/places when she’s around Sloat and goes to pick up Lauren from Meg’s. When the two adults are alone, Meg brings up the Secret Six, an organization her father helped run that eradicated Miami of its gangster presence through publication of each prominent figure’s crimes in the paper. He suggests bringing the group back to knock Ben and company out of power in Miami and that she should/could use her connections to make it happen.

Ike then heads to the memorial for Maria, where Mercy is introduced to Antonio Rivas, that ends with Vic playing his song with his wife for a final time. Once Ike gets home, he receives a call from Nunez that indicates interest in forming an alliance.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-How gorgeous was Cuba? I’m not sure if the show went to Cuba or if they just found a great stand-in location, but Ike’s brief jaunt to Havana might have been the prettiest thing the show’s done thus far.
-I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop regarding Lily, Ben, and Stevie. I get that he likes being cuckholded and that he wants Stevie near enough to him so he could either learn information about Ike or bring him over to the dark side, but it feels like there’s a knockout punch of a plot twist/development lurking later this season.
-Was Susie’s presence deliberate? If Danny had been unsure about the position, Klein dangled a pretty girl in front of him to sweeten the arrangement, so to speak.
-Eddie Blue is super handsome and I don’t trust him for a second.
-I wouldn’t think that a cockfight would be the environment most conducive to business talk, but hey, Ben and Ike made it work, I suppose.
-So, Mercy and Rivas were kind of cozy, no? Are we looking at both her and Danny cheating sometime this season?
-The song that Vic played at the funeral is below – “Yo Te Quiero Siempre”. It’s not that version, which came out in 1954, but you get the idea.
–Magic City will be off next week, but when it returns on July 12th, Ike considers a deal with Sy, Danny learns the truth about Ben, and Ben puts a kink in a Cuban arms deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5kWFvV4Oe0

The post Magic City Season 2 Recap: What Would You Do If You Knew Where the Devil Lived? appeared first on TVHackr.

Meanwhile, Vera and Ike are preparing for Passover Seder the following night and the subject of Minneapolis Mutual and Ike’s deliberate deception comes up. Vera is upset about having to find out about their financial status and the identity of their silent partners through the meeting she had in the season premiere, while Ike reminds her that she’s never before cared about where their money came from and by becoming involved in the behind the scenes process, she’ll learn some harsh truths. The issue of trust remains between them, as Vera’s people are taught that lying is a virtue and Ike’s are taught that you do what you have to in order to protect the ones you love.

Stevie and Lily head out to a club in Overtown for an official date now that Ben is in Chicago for the night. The two start getting hot and heavy, only for a fight between Bel and another man to erupt over gambling debts. Stevie gets involved and, while taking a shot to the face, manages to subdue the situation and get Bel out of trouble. On the way to the car, Bel chastises him for not sneaking in quietly and opting for the “what’s going on?” approach to being his backup; before he can continue, the man he got into a fight with quickly approaches their vehicle with a gun drawn. Stevie grabs Bel’s gun and shoots him, someone that Bel calls a cokehead that could use the wake up call that a shot could provide. However, Stevie remains numb about the situation, even when spending the night with Lily.

While Ike’s gotten a major confidence boost thanks to his Cuban plan, despite the apprehension from Sid, Ben is fuming about Sy knowing the logistics of Nicky Grillo and blames Bel for the lack of information. He charges the bookie with learning what Grillo’s up to and stabs a member of his staff out of frustration for his current situation and the way he looks to those in charge. Ike catches the last bit of Vera’s meeting with her show’s choreographer and informs her that he’ll be leaving town soon for a brief trip to Havana under the guise of looking at hotels. She puts her trust in him, obviously a cue from their earlier conversation.

Former Cuban rebel El Tiberon checks into the Miramar and vouches for the fact that Vic’s wife Maria, who died during the first season, ended her life with her husband’s name on her lips. She was behind El Tiberon in line when Castro’s men came and since the dictator won’t release the body, there’s no way for Vic to find peace with a proper burial. Ike vows to bring back Maria’s body from Havana to soothe Vic’s soul and later meets with Percy to offer a deal; he’ll give the agent access to El Tiberon’s suite and tap the phone, thereby aiding in the pursuit of Castro, if he’s allowed to go to Cuba and get Maria’s remains. Both Vic and Mercy are out of sorts without Maria, him staring endlessly at old photos and her quitting Pan Am after working so hard to get aboard, but Fidel doesn’t want the body to go to the States in its current condition, chock full of bullet holes. If word got out what happened to Maria, she would become a martyr and rally fellow Cubans to overthrow him.

At the Miramar, Ben and Senator Sloat are receiving massages when the impending gambling bill is brought up. Ned promises to use his connections to get it passed, which would allow Ben to take Ike out for good. Elsewhere, Judi Silver makes her return to the hotel and has a run-in with Stevie, who doesn’t take too kindly to her insinuations of spreading word about his affair with Lily. Of course, she’s merely kidding and after he compliments her performance in the courtroom, she gets him to set her up with a client, an Iowan beauty supplies rep named Tommy. He’s quickly arrested for solicitation and Judi gets threatened by Doug, causing Stevie to come to her aid.

Ike goes to Meg and invites her to the Seder that Vera is throwing. She accepts and the two reminisce about the first time they met, at a Christmas charity where he was the cabana boy and she could hardly contain her attraction. However, the two couldn’t be together due to the times they were living in and that connection has carried them through present day, where he still remembers the color of the bikini she was wearing at the time.

The Seder doesn’t get off to a good start when Arthur and Inez are 45 minutes late and Stevie and Danny don’t seem to want to take the ceremony seriously. When Meg brings up that Lauren is wearing gloves from her biological mother, Vera begins the Seder, with Arthur and Inez arriving much later. They bring a much shorter reading than the one Vera planned to include and the rest of the ceremony goes fairly well.

Ben has invited Nicky to his home for a party featuring coke, women, and alcohol and introduces him to Lily, who Nicky compares to Ava Gardner. It turns out, though, that Nicky was the last boyfriend Lily had before she became involved with Ben and she disappeared rather than formally breaking up with him. He calls her decision “moving up the food chain” and while confronting her as she got more wine, scares her to prove that he still has that type of control over her. Later, there’s a group of naked women on Ben’s bed while he’s looking through the glass above at them, reciting a portion of a poem about the angel of death before urinating on the glass.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-The poem that Ben was reciting in the closing moments of the episode was “The Destruction of Sennachreib” by George Gordon Byron. You can read the full thing here.
-Also, the song that was being performed in the club Stevie and Lily were in was Ike & Tina Turner’s “I Idolize You”.
-Aside from a few animated shows, I can’t remember a Passover Seder playing a prominent role in an American television series, so kudos, Magic City.  It was an interesting cultural detail and I’m always a big fan of big events that bring casts together and lets them bounce off of one another.
-So, how great was James Caan in his greenhouse scene? The presence of his character helps keep the show (and the idea of Ben Diamond) fairly grounded in reality, while his performance was so lively and entertaining. The line about the mermaid, him calling Ben a pelican, and the gardening tips were all delightful.
-Favorite shot: the beat when Stevie realizes the man he fought in the bar was approaching the car with the gun. The entire series of Magic City has beautiful art direction and cinematography, of course, but I thought that was especially well done. I also thought the final sequence that revealed Ike on the plane to Cuba was interestingly done.
-I don’t think I was supposed to, but I found Ben stabbing his employee’s hand amazingly funny in its randomness and, upon reflection, its exact alignment with who he is as a businessman and a person.
-Judi Silver remains the best, thanks to her interaction with Stevie and the “trick question” pun that she made.
-Although I know that Ike loves Vera, I can’t help but think that the growing distance between them, coupled with the fondness between Ike and Meg, will eventually lead to him straying with his silent partner.
-We met the woman who can crack a walnut with her labia. I hope this fact plays a role later in the season, just because.
-Next week on Magic City: Ike goes to retrieve Maria’s ashes in Cuba, while Vera struggles to make it through dance rehearsals.

The post Magic City Season 2 Recap: Bury Them Up to Their Necks appeared first on TVHackr.

The subject of Ike’s innocence comes up when Stevie and Danny are talking and while the former is defending his father, claiming that there’s no way he could have killed Jimmy Shoes, the latter isn’t so sure. Ike’s bail is set at one million dollars and there’s no way it would have been at that level if Jack Klein didn’t have any evidence. They’re interrupted when Stevie sees Ben and Lily eating near the pool, with The Butcher inviting him over to “introduce” him to Lily and inquire about Ike’s well-being. Ben then offers Stevie $100,000, which he politely declines, before going into the history of his nickname; after running away to join the carnival at the age of 14, Ben worked his way up from shill to well-received butcher, a far cry from the origin that Stevie expected.

(That included a hooker with no hands and a pile of stolen cash.)

Jack Klein has the Judi Silver confession in his hands and even though his employees want him to use it, he burns it, claiming that this is the work of Ben Diamond and that it was written under duress. If Ben can get the only witness to the crime to go a certain way, Ike will walk and what he has in his hands is meant to be a distraction, not an epiphany. He believes what Judi Silver told him rather than what she wrote and pledges to make Ike see his fate; helping matters is the fact that he basically owns the grand jury and should thus be able to get an indictment. However, according to Ike’s lawyer, all Klein has in his pocket is Judi, so if her testimony can somehow be discounted, there won’t be a case to pursue.

Vera storms into the meeting of Ike’s team, including Meg and Stevie, and finds out about him selling 15% of his stake in the Miramar. Despite being upset at Meg acting as a silent partner, she still wants to bring him home as quickly as possible, yet refuses money from Ms. Bannock and the idea of selling the Miramar’s adjoining lots. Being that the upcoming summer season is the slowest time for the hotel, they can’t simply dip into the coffers and produce the required 10% of Ike’s bail that would bring him home, not with the George Moore party already checking out and the Latin burlesque show not panning out. Even though Ike advises his lawyer to tell Stevie not to accept anything from Ben, he has other things to worry about – namely, the coat he was wearing the night of the murder that disappeared. It’s about the only physical piece of evidence that could help Klein build a case and Danny is the one who has it in his possession, after inadvertently finding out while out one night.

While Vera apologizes to Stevie for being hard-headed, Ben is visited by Bel and Lady Renee, the latter of which is a Madame looking for Ben’s help in opening a ziggurat with see-through mirrors. She’s already gotten into the pockets of the Miami cops and needs money from Ben to get things kick started; he agrees to front her $100,000 with another $100,000 to come, as long as he owns 70% of the girls. She ultimately agrees and shortly after she leaves, Ben receives a call that Klein burned Judi’s confession and that she was set to testify the following day. Ben tasks Bel with getting Ike’s bail in a way that can’t be traced back, leaving Judi’s fate to him. Even though he’s The Butcher for a reason, Judi’s being protected round the clock, making the opportunity to strike extremely small.

At the barbershop, Danny hints to his grandfather that he knows something that could potentially bring down the family, as if to see whether he’d get support should he bring forth the jacket. However, his grandfather only says that even though Ike may do bad things, he’ll never be bad, not in his eyes. Meanwhile, Ike watches an interview with Fidel Castro and formulates a plan that could rid him of Ben Diamond once and for all. Under Castro’s watch, five of the biggest moneymaking hotel-casinos in Cuba have become ghost towns, hemorrhaging money in the process. Given his own reputation as a savvy businessman, Ike will offer to run his hotels with a staff that has no connection to the mob, giving the dictator 70% of the profit – or 2-3 million dollars a week, upwards of 100 million a year. He’ll then offer up the Miramar (and $1 million/week) to Chicago mob boss Sy Berman, only if Sy will get rid of Ben Diamond for good.

Vera makes bail thanks to a little help from Bel, much to Ike’s chagrin. He didn’t want her to be this involved in this side of his life, but she claims that they needed him and that she wants to be involved. Elsewhere, Jack visits Judi in the hospital and apologizes for letting Ben get to her, reassuring that she’s safe now – as long as she decides to tell the truth regarding what happened the night of Jimmy’s death. She’s brought into the court room the following day and Jack leads her through what happened to Jimmy, only for Judi to put the blame on Al Haas and claim that Jack put a gun to her face to get her to testify against Ike. Jack may be motivated to get Judi back for what she did, but he’ll first have to deal with extremely bad press and an ethics review, as well as the possibility of having to drop his case due to lack of evidence.

There’s a party at the Miramar in honor of Ike getting out of prison, which Ben and Lily attend without giving prior notice. Ike knows that Bel’s in cahoots with Ben and informs The Butcher that he doesn’t want or need his help. In turn, Ben warns Ike that he shouldn’t forget who he can and can’t trust before leaving with Lily in tow. While Danny burns the jacket on the beach, Ben calls Sy Berman with one topic in mind to talk about: Ike Evans.

Additional thoughts and observations:
-The show was already Sopranos-ish and the premiere upped that factor by throwing in two dream sequences, including one to open the episode featuring Mike Strauss and the shark from the opening credits.
-For some reason, I still think that Danny is a wildcard going forward. He might not be able to bring his father in for the murder after burning the jacket, but his connection to the devoutly religious Mercy, combined with his position at the state’s attorney’s office and black-and-white worldview, makes me wonder if there won’t be tension between him and Ike sometime later this season.
-In order to make money for the hotel, Ike agreed to let Vera put on a show, something he was firmly against last season. Part of his concern had to do with pride, that he didn’t want the wife of Ike Evans to have to dance, but Vera really wants to have something for her own and this could help her disposition quite a bit. But how long will it be before Ike is once again against the idea?
-I laughed more than I should at Ben falling asleep on his two-way floor after watching Lily have sex with Stevie.
-Judi Silver has balls of steel and demonstrated once again why I loved her so much during the first season. I’m sure her character has a limited shelf life and will likely meet her end sooner rather than later, but for now, I think she’s the highlight of the show for me.
-Next week on Magic City: Having had a hit put on him by Ben, Ike’s plan is set into motion, while Stevie and Lily go on a date and Meg threatens Vera.

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