Hightown 1.8: Up and Down and Up

Hightown's season one wrapped up tonight (episode 1.8).  A short but powerful season, all set to fire on all kind of cylinders in season two.

[Spoilers follow]

The gist of the plot is that Jackie's up, Ray's down, but the real kicker is Frankie's up, too.   The man responsible in one way or another for all the killings is not only unscathed but of prison.   Not only that, he's back with Renee.  Not that she loves him.  But she's accepted that she has to be with him.

Why?  Because she didn't like being listed as an "expense" by Ray?  She still loves Ray, or close to that, deep inside.  Her reaction when Ray tells her he loves her says it all.  But with Frankie back in bed with her, literally, there's not much she can do about it.  Not now.

It was good to she Jackie, finally, on top of things, and riding into a new life.   It will fall to her to do what she can to stop Frankie next season, at least at the beginning of the season.  There won't be much that Ray can do in his position as bouncer or muscle at some bar.   All because he had sex with Renee.  We and he and she know it was not just lust, but because he loved her.   But the police and DA above him don't know about that, and wouldn't care about it even if they did.

I thought Osito went down a little too easily tonight.  I still like him as the best bad character in this series.  But I guess Osito down was necessary for Jackie's fortunes to rise, and I'm certainly glad about that.  (Those two girls on that bus to the Cape at the end, taking over that part of the business, will make good villains next season.) And I'll say one more time that Monica Raymund was really outstanding as Jackie.   She came into her own an actress, vastly better than the emotionally handcuffed part she was given as Dawson in Chicago Fire.

So ... the wife and  I still didn't get up to the Cape this year.  Maybe in the Fall.   Definitely next summer.  But at least we had Hightown.

See also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry ... Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood ... Hightown 1.5-6: Turning Point and the Real True ... Hightown 1.7: Two Things