Is it just me, or is a hurricane definitely a-comin’ in the world of Bad Monkey? Perhaps the Dragon Queen is just referring to a metaphorical hurricane with her prophecy, but we’re also introduced to a meteorologist character who refers to herself as “Heather with the weather,†so it feels like a literal storm is approaching, and fast.
This is the second of two episodes released on premiere day, so it can kind of be considered as episode one, part two. Both episodes serve to introduce and familiarize us with the show’s wide-ranging cast of characters and establish their purpose within the narrative — and it’s starting to feel like the women are stealing the show. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very much digging Vince Vaughn and his wisecracking train-of-thought existence, but it feels like you wouldn’t want to cross any of the ladies currently in his orbit. Bonnie is a gorgeous, unhinged narcissist, Rosa has a sharp mind and a killer sense of curiosity, Eve is… also a gorgeous, unhinged narcissist? The jury is kind of out on her, but the fact that she buys a bright yellow Jeep just days after her husband’s funeral is certainly a giant red flag.
And the Dragon Queen? Well, I’ve previously established that I’m obsessed with her whole thing. While she has her doubts about her power, she never lets anyone outside of her inner circle (Ya-Ya) know that she’s unsure of her abilities. She remains a terrifying enigma to everyone, especially Neville. After Christopher and Eve’s enforcer, Egg (yup, his name is Egg), tears down Neville’s house while he’s gone fishin’, Neville stomps up to the queen’s house and catches her and Ya-Ya in the middle of a ceremony involving an old man. She claims she’s helping him cross over, and Neville is clearly freaked out.
But he holds his ground and asks about his curse. The Dragon Queen tells him that she needs more money, but suggests that she also takes other forms of payment as well. Even though Neville is a proud fuckboy, he’s nervous to engage with this force of nature in female form, so he hightails it to the Keys to get money from his half-sister instead. Later, the Dragon Queen and Ya-Ya conduct a ceremony on the beach, calling forth her powers at the edge of the sea as she considers Neville’s situation. She sees other “bad people†in the mix, and claims that she can move the players where she wishes. As she engages in her ritual, we get a glimpse of Neville and Yancy meeting for the first time at Neville’s sister’s coffee shop. Is the Dragon Queen a true puppet master, pulling Neville’s strings closer to a man who can help him solve his mystery? Or is it just pure, dumb luck? Seeing as how the narrator makes a point to mention that both men felt like they were being “sucked unwillingly into chaos,†my money’s on the queen.
In the Dragon Queen’s vision, the screen also flashes to both Christopher (hi, Rob Delaney!) and Eve when she mentions “bad people.†In this episode, we finally get to see that Eve is connected to Christopher, the evil developer in Andros, and that she does not seem to give a fuck about her dead husband. She jumps on Christopher’s dick in the hot tub faster than you can say “decaying severed arm.†And then, when she gets a text from Nick’s daughter, Caitlin, threatening to call the insurance company about the $5 million payout, she freaks and heads back to the Keys herself. She and Neville probably weren’t on the same plane back to the States, but can you imagine her little squeaky dog Tilly interacting with bad monkey Driggs in the aisle of a puddle jumper? I would like to see it, please.
Eve placates Caitlin by showing her that she’s wearing Nick’s wedding ring on a chain around her neck and telling her that she’s also a beneficiary on the giant insurance windfall. What Eve doesn’t know is that Caitlin already chatted with Andrew Yancy, who now has Eve on his radar as a suspect in Nick’s murder.
However, Yancy sadly doesn’t have the full force of the force behind him. Even though Bonnie’s husband dropped all the charges against him — Bonnie begged him to do so, not for Yancy’s good, but her own (we’ll get to that) — Sonny can’t reinstate him as a detective yet. So he gives him the next best thing. Well, actually, the worst thing for Yancy, but the best thing for us as viewers: Sonny makes him a food inspector.
The food inspector gig paves the way for lots of laughs. The rat-a-tat back and forth when Sonny gives Yancy the gig, leading up to the reveal that the dude died on duty, is hilarious. And, Yancy’s whole walkthrough of Stoney’s is absolutely disgusting, but his breathless retorts to all of the proprietor’s protests are comedy gold. From the condom in the soup, no, chowder (that’s not how Ina Garten makes her chowder), to the diners’ nonplussed reactions when Yancy tells them all to stop eating, all the food inspector stuff is an absolute hoot. However, when Madeline sees Yancy, she bolts. It’s probably for the best that she didn’t finish that burrito anyway.
You remember Madeline, right? She’s the girlfriend of the dude Christopher murdered at the end of the last episode. Why would she run away from Yancy if she didn’t have anything to hide? Yancy does his due diligence and asks Rogelio to check up on the situation, but his old partner doesn’t take him seriously.
Yancy sure is having a day of women running full speed away from him. First Bonnie and now Madeline. Bonnie is also running from the law, but for completely different reasons. She swings by to say goodbye to Yancy, gets really vague about why she has to bolt, and then kicks him out of her car. Yancy gets a fun line in response to all of her nonsense when he says, “Sometimes I feel like I’m in a movie that you’re writing in your head.†It turns out that Bonnie is kind of in a movie, but it’s an afterschool special. Later, Yancy meets Detective Johanna Russell (Ashley Nicole Black) who fills him in on the dirt: Bonnie was an English teacher who had an affair with one of her 17-year-old students nine years ago. It feels odd that the cops in Oklahoma would still be wasting resources on catching her a whole decade after that type of crime, but here we are.
With Bonnie out of the picture, Yancy is fully free to engage in his flirtation with Rosa. We learn more about Rosa in this episode, including that she is not above ganking a cute top from a corpse, and that she has an affinity for burritos and weed. She sounds pretty awesome, actually. Yancy thinks so, too, because once they both show up at the Striplings’ house together, they team up and start finding some gnarly stuff.
When the Striplings’ fancy shower goes off while Rosa and Yancy are hiding in it, they notice that the drain is bloody. When they pull up the cover, they find some suspicious fragments. Yancy licks them to try and ascertain whether or not they’re bone or another substance, while Rosa’s trained eye knows that they’re bone shards by sight. (Bone is porous! Your tongue will stick to it if you lick it! Don’t ask me how I know that!) Sadly, they can’t enter the shards into evidence or get them tested or really do anything useful at all with them because the sample was obtained under super-illegal circumstances. Ugh. But given that there were bone shards and blood just moldering in a shower drain for lord knows how long, it feels like we’re dealing with some pretty dumb criminals, and there will likely be more evidence to be had soon.
Monkeying Around
• Yancy’s ringtone is the chorus to ZZ Top’s song “La Grange,†which is about a brothel in Texas that was also the inspiration for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I’m unsure what any of that has to do with Yancy and his deep connections to Key West, but it is an undeniably cool song.
• Yancy’s lawyer, Monty, is also Rogelio’s husband. Cutie!
• Who do you think is trying to run Yancy over with that black Yukon SUV?
• Tom Petty Cover Watch: The vibe of the show continues to be elevated and defined by sublime Tom Petty covers. “Don’t Do Me Like That†by flipturn is the only cover in this episode, but it’s a fun one.