The first episode of Mayor of Kingstown season four wastes no time in introducing the city's new characters, who, as expected, will make Mike McLusky's life hell. Or should I say "they'll try," just like his former adversaries, Milo Sunter, a Russian mobster, and Merle Callahan, a former Aryan gang leader? But, before we get to the events of the latest episode, I just want to remind you of what happened at the end of the previous season. Don't worry, I'll be brief. Mike got revenge for his mother's death and shot Milo dead.
Mike had asked his friend Ian to put Iris on a bus to get her away from Kingstown, but Iris was tormented by her own demons. Milo had forced her to murder Konstantin, and Iris couldn't live with the guilt of taking a life. On the bus, she overdosed and died instantly. But Mike doesn't know about her death, and Ian plans to keep it that way. Speaking of Callahan, Bunny had sent men to kill him, but unfortunately, he survived the attack and was admitted to the hospital.
Creator: Taylor Sheridan
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Martin Starr, Jay Will
Meanwhile, the interim warden, Kareem Moore, caught in a personal and professional mess, decided to sacrifice his life in the line of duty so his family could qualify for a pension. He opened the gates and walked straight into the yard, where members of the Aryan gang stabbed him to death. In episode 1, we have a new warden, Nina Hobbs, who makes it clear that she won't be running things like her predecessor. And last but not least, Mike's younger brother, Kyle, shot a fellow SWAT team member, Robert Sawyer, who was about to shoot an innocent civilian on the Sixth Street bridge. Well, Robert is pretty much a walking danger, so Kyle didn't do anything wrong, but he couldn't tell the truth either, because Robert knew all his secrets, including Mike's. He had made it clear that he wouldn't go down alone and that he would take everyone else with him. So, to protect Mike, Ian, and other officers, Kyle took the blame and is now being sent to Anchor Bay to serve a two-year sentence. The question is: will he survive behind those prison walls?
With Milo dead and Callahan in the hospital, a new criminal has emerged to fill the power vacuum in Kingstown. The first episode introduced us to Frank Moses. We don't know much about him yet, but we do know that he's ruthless and savage. He burst onto the scene with a bang and made sure that Mike and his friends, both cops and criminals, were aware of his arrival. In the opening scene, Moses's men placed a group of thugs on the train tracks, where a moving train decapitated them. Later, Ian and Stevie called him to the crime scene to use his contacts and find out something about this mysterious gangster. The tattoos on their bodies suggested that these men were part of the Russian mafia, and that someone was cleaning up Konstantin's mess. Mike even asked Bunny if he had any idea about the gruesome murder, but he was just as baffled as everyone else. Not even the Aryan gang members had a clue who this person was. I'm guessing Moses works for the Spanish gangsters, and as Mike suggested, sooner or later, he'll go after Bunny too. The streets of Kingstown will once again become a battleground, and these decapitated bodies are just the beginning.
Kyle was supposed to serve 20 years in prison for shooting a fellow police officer in the line of duty, but Mike's lawyer, Chester, worked some magic and reduced Kyle's sentence to 2 years. He assured Mike that his younger brother would be out in 6 months for good behavior. But there was something else that worried Mike. He didn't want Kyle to enter the prison in full view of the other inmates. Kyle was a cop, and if they found out he was being transferred to Kingstown Penitentiary, they wouldn't hesitate to take revenge on a police officer who had put them behind bars. You see, some of them were serving life sentences, and killing Kyle wouldn't change anything for them. That's why Mike went to talk to the new warden, Nina Hobbs, to convince her to look out for his younger brother, but Nina refused to offer Kyle any special privileges.
To her, he was a criminal who had broken the law, regardless of his background. She bluntly told Mike that she didn't need his help running her own prison, and all Mike could do was force a smile, because he knew that everyone needs the mayor of Kingstown at some point. But Mike didn't want to be rude and therefore humbly asked Nina to put Carney in administrative segregation, where Kyle was going to be transferred, but she also refused that request. Mike thought that Nina was new to the job and that it would be difficult to convince her until she saw the chaos with her own eyes. She may have an impeccable record, but she hasn't seen how quickly peace turns into violence in Kingstown. Later, Mike asked Carney to make some arrangements for Kyle, but he couldn't do anything either. So, basically, everyone refused to help Kyle, and all of this suggests that something really bad is going to happen to him.
Furthermore, Nina confronted Kevin Jackson, a prison guard, and hinted that she was aware of his loyalty to the gangster outside the prison and gave him a subtle warning not to make the same mistakes again. So, from now on, I'm not sure how much Kevin will be able to help Bunny from inside prison, but let's see what happens in the next episodes. Before Kyle went to prison, his wife, Tracy, did everything she could to convince him to tell the truth about Robert Sawyer. District Attorney Evelyn Foley had heard rumors about Robert and, given his background, knew he suffered from acute post-traumatic stress disorder, but she didn't have enough evidence to indict him.
When Kyle shot Robert on the bridge, Evelyn thought she could convince Kyle to become a state's witness and help her put an end to Robert's cruelty, but Kyle refused to testify against him. The reasons for his decision were simple. Not only would he lose his job, but he would also have to serve a prison sentence. And, as far as I know, he would never be able to work in any public service sector with a blemish on his record. So Tracy's concerns were valid. Although Kyle would get out of prison alive in six months, he wouldn't be able to find a job in Kingstown. But it seemed that Kyle no longer wanted to live in that cursed city. It was there that his brother was murdered, and it was in the same city that his mother took her last breath after being shot.
Furthermore, the reason Kyle couldn't testify against Robert was that everyone knew Robert wouldn't stay silent. Mike, Ian, Stevie, Robert, and Carney were all accomplices who had been manipulating the law to maintain peace and order in Kingstown, and if Robert were arrested, he would take them all down with him. Ian had been an accomplice in the murder of a witness, Morrissey, who was going to testify against Robert, and Robert knew everything. In short, Kyle couldn't speak. If he wanted to protect his brother and his friends, he had to remain silent and accept the consequences. This was the reason why even Mike didn't try to convince Kyle to talk to Evelyn, and Mike wanted to tell the same thing to his ex-girlfriend, but she wouldn't understand. She's too moralistic to comprehend Mike's modus operandi.
In the previous season, Bunny and Raphael Johnson, who was running the business from prison, had made a deal with the Spanish gangsters to protect themselves from the Aryans and the Russians, but now, with the situation normalized, Bunny wanted the agreement to expire. However, Roberto, the leader of the Spanish gang in prison, disagreed. He had lost a cook and some of his men and wanted compensation for the losses. Roberto had his sights set on an upcoming shipment, and there would be no agreement between them until his demands were met. Rapha believed something was wrong with the Spaniards. They were acting very arrogantly, which suggested they had someone backing them from the shadows, but Rapha didn't know who their new ally was. He spoke with Bunny, who advised him not to give in to their demands. Well, that didn't end well for Bunny.
At the end of episode 1, a car with four Hispanics opened fire on Bunny's car, but fortunately, no one was injured. It seemed the Spaniards wanted to send Bunny a message not to break the deal and to uphold his end of the agreement, but he could be wrong. The shooters tried to flee, but Ian and Stevie began following them and quickly informed Mike about the attack. Mike told Ian he was already on his way, and moments later, Mike stopped the shooters near a railroad crossing where they began firing at Ian, Mike, and Stevie.
In the shootout, Ian, Mike, and Stevie not only took down most of these gangsters but also managed to arrest one alive, but unfortunately, he didn't talk much. It was a dead end. However, Mike theorized that it could be the Spaniards who killed those men on the train tracks, and he might be right if Frank Moses turned out to be their new leader. Elsewhere in Kingstown, Kyle finally entered the prison, but as soon as he reached the entrance to the isolation unit, an inmate, with a cleaning cart, attacked Kyle and Mullen, the officer in charge of him, with a padlock inside a sock.
I don't think he intended to kill Kyle, but he inflicted enough bruises for his brother to get the message. The end of episode 1 suggested that it was Mike's old rival, Callahan, who had ordered the attack on Kyle to let Mike know that he was no longer in control. In the previous season, Mike had tried to kill Callahan, so the attack on Kyle could also be interpreted as an act of revenge. But wait a minute.
Nina Hobbs had told Mike that Callahan was in the infirmary and wouldn't be able to get near Kyle, so what was he doing in the next cell? Did Nina intentionally lie to Mike? The most important question is why? And obviously, she didn't want Mike to find out about Callahan, which is why she didn't put Carney in charge of the isolation unit. Now, the way one of the final scenes showed the new correctional officer, Cindy Stephens, with her family, seemed to indicate that she also had a role in all this mess. Perhaps she was just following Nina's orders, or maybe someone was blackmailing her. Or was Cindy simply worried about her family and that's why she decided to stay out of it? Well, we'll soon find out.
Nina didn't tell Mike that Cindy was in charge of isolation, but Carney did, and in the next episode, I think Mike will approach Cindy outside the prison to make sure that no more tragedies befall his brother. Perhaps it will be Mike who threatens Cindy's family to ensure she takes good care of his brother; there's no way of knowing. However, the worst will come to light the moment Mike discovers that it's Callahan pulling the strings and that Nina withheld crucial information that endangered his brother's life. We all know how Mike is going to react. She had warned the new warden that if anything happened to her brother, there would be consequences. And Nina's games won't last long. Eventually, she will face the wrath of the mayor of Kingstown.
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