Bad Monkey Ep. 9 - "You Really Don’t Want to Kill This Scrumptious Little Puppy"

It’s a magical mystery tour straight into a storm front.

To this point in “Bad Monkey,” we’ve been following parallel stories that sometimes veer and twist into one another, but this is the part where they braid together into a single focal point that will decide the fate of everybody we’ve come to know from the Keys and from Andros. Director Colin Bucksey, and especially the editor, Perri B. Frank, deserve immense credit for the gripping and relentless pace of Episode 9. With the sole exception of another brief detour into the denouement of Bonnie’s story, which may or may not end up being relevant, we’re moving faster than ever. This means that spoilers are arriving even faster this time, too . . . 

Of course, that means this recap is going to be more of a play-by-play since that’s the stage of our story that we find ourselves in. That’s not to say that “Bad Monkey” doesn’t have some twists, turns, and misdirections left as we find our way in and out of danger before the reckoning comes upon us – but when it comes, oh, it will be mighty.

Physically it’s coming in the form of Hurricane Mel, as we’re warned all through Episode 9, the storm that’s about to make landfall in the Bahamas on its way to Florida. Mel is going to force new urgency on everyone to take quick action to accomplish their carefully laid, or desperate, plans. 

For example, the Striplings ask to take Rosa (still playing the role of the wealthy investor) with them to Miami to get her cash now instead of waiting for the storm to pass. Yancy smells trouble and tries to urge Rosa to bring Neville’s revolver with her, which she declines. Yancy is not about to let that deter him, though, and slips it into her bag anyway. 

Around the same time, Gracie goes to say goodbye to Ya-Ya and urge her to escape the island with her, but Ya-Ya insists that escape isn’t an option: The events that Gracie’s curse have set in motion will compel her to fulfill her part in their resolution. And, much to Gracie’s irritation, she’s already proven right when she discovers that all the flights off Andros are canceled. There’s a spiritual storm coming, too, and Gracie knows it even if she would really rather not.

Ya-Ya gets a moment of her own to drive this point home when she encounters a young girl who shows signs of sensitivity to magic, and reassures her that, in fact, most people do believe in it, no matter what name they may have for it. I don’t know if I have yet singled out L. Scott Caldwell’s performance as Ya-Ya here, but she shines here in an understated revelation of the powers that will shape the rest of our story, and may have been shaping it all along.

Rosa quickly discovers that Eve is onto her, when she produces the Polaroid from the wall of the bar where they had it taken with K.J. Claspers the pilot – we all knew this was going to come back to haunt them, right? She orders Egg the enforcer to take her off site while they try to flush out Yancy – who runs into Gracie with Neville at just the right time to get her to reveal that she’s heard from Egg about their blown cover, and dashes off to attempt a rescue. 

Nick meets Yancy at the house with an uncomfortably large shotgun, and he and Eve take him out to the lawn to face execution. Luck brings Eve’s pampered little dog into Yancy’s view, and suddenly he has a hostage. He takes the opportunity to reveal that Caitlin asked him to make sure Nick wasn’t hurt, and that she really wants him to step up and be her father again – even as Eve shows him that she feels more strongly about the stupid dog than she does about Nick. 

At this point, I honestly thought that Nick was finally going to end up identifying the real source of his misery, and that Eve would find herself at the business end of that shotgun. Rob Delaney’s bewildered rage in this moment certainly suggests he may be ready to do it. Unshaven and unkempt, he looks and acts every bit of the animal caught in a trap that he now is, and such animals are dangerous.  But whether or not he is capable of killing Eve, we won’t find out right now. Instead, Neville arrives just in time to save the day by spearing Nick in the back with a broken-off fishing rod. 

Rosa has also figured out how to escape by discovering and using Neville’s gun on Egg’s leg, even if it might be kind of an accident. (Score one for Chekhov.) But they still can’t get off Andros if they can’t fly. Unless . . . 

Gracie, still stuck at the bar, finds a woman drinking hard, who nevertheless tells her that she believes in the Dragon Queen’s magic and convinces Gracie to walk her home. On the way, they reach the cemetery where Gracie’s mother is buried, and it dawns on Gracie exactly who she is talking to, as the mysterious woman tells her she’s proud of her, and then is there no more. This grave is home for Gracie’s mother. Something changes in this instant for Gracie, and for once the narrator holds back from telling us so and ruining the moment. Thank goodness. 

Yancy and Rosa track down K.J. Claspers and tell him the truth about his employers, and that they’re detectives who would very much like to use his plane to get off Andros, please and thank you. At the pier, though, Yancy puts Rosa on the plane and insists on staying on Andros to see justice done, even though Rosa says this is the end of their relationship if he does. You see, if he gets on that plane and lets them get away with their crimes he’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow . . . OK, you get it. The “Casablanca” vibe is real, though, or at least a near-parody of it. 

Eve, meanwhile, realizes the nauseating severity of Nick’s wound from the fishing rod, and after he angrily demands that she take care of him for once, goes to seek whatever passes for medical care on the island, and/or take out her aggression on anybody she finds. She bumps into Ya-Ya at Gracie’s house, since she figures that Gracie can help and is still under the impression that Gracie “works for her.” When Ya-Ya notices the Dragon Queen’s altar rebuilt, she now knows what we know, and Eve is about to find out: She is most definitely not anybody’s employee. 

When Eve finds Gracie, she is decked out in fearsome mystical regalia, and as the hurricane arrives, she reveals herself once more as the Dragon Queen in her full and awesome power. Jodie Turner-Smith is magnificent, majestic, and magical in this moment of near apotheosis, a ferocious force of supernatural vengeance. I’m quite sure now that she is my very favorite thing about “Bad Monkey.” 

“Did you really think the orishas would let you carry on?” she cries, invoking the divine Yoruba spirits. (For a bit of background on the practice of obeah and other Yoruba-derived magical traditions, see the recap for Ep. 7.) The Dragon Queen draws a knife and draws first blood on Eve’s chin.

“It’s time to end this.” 

If that’s not a thrilling setup for next week’s final resolution, I don’t know what is.