A lot of moving pieces in the Season 1 penultimate episode of The Westies:

Pete and Mike from SMS Mashups discuss the recent episode of The Westies. Tensions between Jimmy and Sweeney boil over when one of the Westies is busted for drug dealing.

Knucklehead:

Here is a what-not-to-do when being a drug dealer: DO NOT TAKE A BAG OF DRUGS INTO A GENTLEMAN’S CLUB, LEAVE IT IN FULL DISPLAY, AND OFFER SOME TO ONE OF THE WOMEN WORKING!!! No matter how attractive one of the women is, always keep your drugs hidden, but also do not carry that much on you. Sean, one of Jimmy’s guys, had 8 ounces on him while getting lap dances and left the bag out in full display on a couch. The woman giving him a lap dance, surprise, surprise, was undercover NYPD, and Sean was arrested. What a knucklehead, right?

Deciding Next Moves:

Jimmy and Mickey meet with Sweeney, Breene, and Cliffie, and for obvious reasons, the tensions are high in the room. Sweeney settles everyone down, but needs to know where Jimmy has been getting the supply of drugs from. Jimmy says that after Sweeney left him a bit high and dry, he needed to make a deal with John Gotti to pay back Ruby Stein. This news does not go over well, but what is done is done, and Sweeney tells Breen to call one of their best lawyers on the payroll, Victor Paulson. Sweeney then orders Jimmy to end things with Gotti.

Victor Paulson tells Sean he has to plead guilty, and in return he would get around 5 years in prison if he stays clean and keeps his nose down. Sean agrees because it is the best deal he can get; the alternative would be to go to trial and possibly get over a 20-year sentence. Jimmy brings the news to Sweeney and Breene, but they worry Sean will not talk. Sweeney tells Jimmy that he is in a ringer now and he wishes Jimmy had never talked him into selling drugs. Jimmy blows a bit of a gasket and tells them that their pockets are getting lined from the money coming in.

Sweeney and Gotti meet at Gotti’s place to discuss the issue with Sean. Gotti mentions that even if Sean keeps his mouth shut to the feds, what will stop him from saying what he did in prison, where the news could get back to Paul Castellano. Sweeney says he will take care of it. Meanwhile, the guys are throwing a going-away party for Sean; Breene and Cliffie show up because Sweeney wants to see him. Sweeney gives Sean the talk about what going away means to the crew, and that Sweeney will take care of his family when he is away. He also says that there will be a job and money waiting for him when he gets out.

With Sean’s guard down, Sweeney says that Breene and Cliffie will give him a ride back home because he has work to do. Breene and Cliffie offer Sean a beer for the road and say that there are some in the trunk. The only thing in the trunk, though, is plastic sheeting. Breene takes out a gun and shoots Sean in the back of the head, and tells Cliffie that they have to chop him up. Was Sean a liability?

Polk And Keenan:

Birdie Polk and Glenn Keenan discuss what Sean’s arrest could lead to: the news getting back to Castellano about Sweeney and Gotti working together to sell drugs. Keenan attempts to get Sean to open up about the Gambino Family, since Glenn has known him since Sean was little. The plan does not work, and Sean gets bailed out before the Feds can really squeeze him.

With Sean being bailed out, and bailed out by Jimmy, Keenan has an idea that maybe he can get Jimmy to turn against Sweeney. Polk asks how he would do it, and Keenan tells her that the people around Sweeney need to be weakened before he can get to them. She asks if that is what he did to Dukey since he is in a coma and useless as a witness, and Keenan says that Dukey had a knife and resisted arrest. Did Polk buy that excuse? Keenan says she should visit John Gotti and shake the tree to see what falls out, and while there, plant a bug.

Polk does just that, taking a bunch of her fellow federal agents with her. John and one of his associates give Polk a lot of grief, but a bug does get planted so they can listen in on the conversations around Gotti’s place. Meanwhile, Keenan visits Jimmy and warns him that if anything were to jeopardize the Javits deal and Sweeney gets paranoid enough about the drugs, no one will be safe from Sweeney. Keenan warns Jimmy that Sean could wind up getting killed in prison because Keenan thinks Sweeney had Pat Murphy killed. Glenn had a good line during this conversation when he tells Jimmy, “It’s like a bad magic show how your friends keep disappearing.”

Keenan asks if he can listen in on the bug at Gotti’s place, but he does not hear the conversation between Gotti and Sweeney until the morning after Sean was taken out. He asks Polk if he can get the record of the conversation, but Polk hesitates. He asks her if she does everything by the book. She says that if she doesn’t know about something, what can she do about it? With that. Keenan approaches Jimmy again, this time with the recording of Gotti and Sweeney’s conversation. Keenan tells Jimmy Sean never turned himself in like he was supposed to. So that means he is on the run or dead.

Bridget Has An Alternative Plan:

Bridget meets with Father Michael about what he has been able to find out about Brendan Cahill. He tells her that some of his IRA contacts from Belfast and Derry said that Brendan got out of jail 3 months into a ten-year sentence. Which means he could be an informant. Bridget does not believe that, and she tells Father Michael that Markham has to die her way.

Bridget meets with Brendan and Mary to let them know about the plan to take out Markham. The plan Bridget wants to carry out is the Honey Trap, where she poses as a working girl to get the mark one-on-one. Bridget gets home late that night, but tells Jimmy that she has so much anger buried inside of her, and until she gets rid of it, she will not be able to give herself fully to him. The next day, they are finalizing the plans as Bridget changes nearby. Brendan makes a big mistake and kisses Bridget, which does not make her happy. She is not Sarah anymore. She still goes through with the plan.

Two Cliffhangers:

Bridget confronts Markham at the bar and convinces him she is a working girl; with that knowledge, he asks her to his room. In the episode, we do not see what happens after they leave the bar. Will Bridget carry out the plan? Will she get caught or killed in the process? Hopefully, we see what happens in the season finale.

After hearing the recording, Jimmy confronts Sweeney at the trailer to find out if Sweeney had Sean killed. Sweeney tells him yes, and that sometimes decisions have to be made, and Jimmy is pissed. He tells Sweeney he is not a boss; he is a coward, and that he never cared about any of the crew. Jimmy says that Sweeney would kill everyone in the crew for a penny, but Sweeney says he would not do it for money, but for power. Sweeney thought that when he got out of the game, Jimmy would be ready to take over, but he was wrong, and Jimmy is pathetic. Jimmy pulls a gun and aims it at Sweeney’s head; however, he cannot pull the trigger and leaves.

With the season finale this upcoming Sunday, will Jimmy turn on Sweeney? Is Brendan an informant? Will Bridget carry out the plan on Markham? Will Polk finally get somewhere with the investigation? A lot of questions remain, and I am looking forward to seeing whether we get answers in the season finale or if it ends on a cliffhanger. There is still no news on whether there will be more seasons of The Westies, but I am hopeful there could be at least 2-3 more.

Check out our conversation on the podcast, and we hope you have enjoyed SMS Mashups coverage on this show. Be sure to check out the website for more of our coverage.

If you like The Westies, you may like one of our favorite mobster shows, The Sopranos; check out our coverage.

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