Episode Title: “A Morning Song”
Writer: Frank Pugliese
Director: Larysa Kondracki
Previously on “Copper:”
Episode 2.04 “I Defy Thee to Forget”
Well here’s an episode that’s sure to divide fans of Five Point’s finest. But no matter how you feel about the big twist/reveal at the end of “A Morning Song,” you’ve got to give the writers of “Copper’ credit for a making such a bold move.
Up until the reveal in the last minutes of the hour, the episode is focused on the takeover of the Five Points precinct by the diabolical Philomen Keating (Lee Tergesen) and his Druids gang. Keating wants three things – Maguire’s release, safe passage out of the city and the two counterfeiting plates taken off Maguire when he was arrested. Unfortunately, that last one proves a bit tricky.
After sending one of his cronies into the station naked and with handfuls of money to throw around as a distraction, Keating and his Druids are able to take over the undermanned precinct. With Donovan out of town and Captain Sullivan among the hostages inside, Corky (Tom Weston-Jones) and O’Brien (Dylan Taylor) lead the effort to secure the police station and free the hostages.
Up until the big reveal in the latter moments of the episode, we watch Keating grow increasingly impatient with Corky and his men, who have yet to hand over the plates. The Druids tear the station apart in their search, but turn up nothing and Corky and O’Brien don’t seem too concerned about finding the plates. Instead, Corky hatches a plan to fight “mayhem” with mayhem by throwing a bomb wrapped in a package of meat inside the building. The explosion allows the Corky and company to storm the precinct and another firefight ensues.
Naturally, there are few important lives hanging in the balance here – namely Captain Sullivan (Ron White), who’s suffering from a gunshot wound and Annie (Kiara Glasco), who decided to spend the night waiting in the precinct instead of going home to Ellen as Corky ordered. Corky makes a deal with Keating to let Dr. Freeman (Ato Essandoh) inside to treat Sullivan, but with such severe wounds, Freeman insists on performing surgery on the Captain. Keating allows Freeman to leave with Captain Sullivan in exchange for another copper and Corky volunteers himself.
Throughout the ordeal, Keating lays it on thick with the “psychotic madman with a dark sense of humor” act. Lee Tergesen adds plenty of charisma to the role of the criminally insane Keating, but as witty as he is, Keating ultimately proves to be as gullible as he is nuts.
It’s kind of disappointing, as Keating’s espousing on the evils of government and the power of the all mighty dollar lead us to believe he’s an educated evil genius with a method to his madness. It makes it hard to believe Keating would give up a helpless hostage like young Annie in exchange for a tough-as-nails copper and war veteran in Corky. And it’s a little odd he wouldn’t begin to suspect one of his own men when the plates aren’t found inside the station.
But the real facepalm-worthy moment for Keating comes when he hands over his gun to Maguire so that he can have the pleasure of killing Corky. One could argue that Keating gets his jollies as much from murder and he does from money but this just seems like a dumb move from a man who presumably told O’Rourke to have Maguire kill a cop to prove himself.
Instead of shooting Corky, Maguire turns the gun on Keating and his men as Corky looks on with a mixed expression of relief and shock. Maguire explains that Corky saved his life “when New York burned,” so now he has returned the favor, making them square. But it’s more than settling old debts that Maguire is interested in.
A moment later, we get the full explanation from General Donovan (Donal Logue): Maguire has been working undercover with the Druids this whole time in an effort to redeem himself and get his badge back. Corky questions the killing of Phinbar and Maguire lies, saying it was O’Rourke who killed him. Either way, Donovan doesn’t seem too concerned with losing a couple of men to take down Keating, as he was ordered to do by the Union Army. He explains that Keating was working for the Confederacy in an attempt to exact revenge on the Union Army for flooding the South with counterfeit money.
The mission may have been an honorable one, but Corky takes offense with the methods. However, it doesn’t stop Donovan from reinstating Maguire and ordering the two men to get past the “serious s***” that’s gone down between them. Maguire’s all for it, spitting in his hand and offering it to Corky, who hesitantly returns the gesture.
Reveals like this have a tendency to divide viewers. Some will feel cheated, having assumed all this time we were privy to all of Maguire’s moves, while others take delight in a twist that spins things in a whole new direction. In this case, I’m leaning towards the latter. Forcing Corky and Maguire to work together again has lots of interesting storytelling potential, even if the way we got to it feels a little contrived. It also makes Maguire’s character and his motives way more interesting. What do you think of Maguire reclaiming his copper status? Don’t just sit there brooding like Corky after a long night at Eva’s Paradise; let us know in the comments!
