Episode Title: ‘The Harder They Fall’
Director: Ed Bianchi
Story:
After learning that Judi Silver’s vanished, D.A. Jack Klein (Matt Ross) orders his assistant to get a court order to have the quarry swept where Ben Diamond’s crony, Jimmy Shoes, was last seen. At the Atlantis lounge, Ike (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tells his father, Arthur (Alex Rocco) he wants to buy out his partner before gambling is legalized and it’s too late.
Ben Diamond (Danny Huston) and his wife, Lily (Jessica Marais) show up as Ike and Stevie (Steven Strait) prepare to host a championship boxing match at the Miramar Playa. When Ben asks Ike about the money he gave him to bribe politicians, Ike assures him he paid off Senator Sloat.
While making final preparations for her Jackie Kennedy luncheon, Vera (Olga Kurylenko) berates a hotel employee for putting out the wrong flowers. Outside by the pool, Stevie tries to soothe Vera’s nerves by reminding her she’s an Evans. Moments later, Stevie’s old girlfriend, Janice tries to warn him that he’s in trouble. However, Stevie brushes her off as Janice’s boyfriend, working as a mime by the pool, looks on.
After learning that Jackie Kennedy has cancelled yet again, Ike gives Vera the bad news, but his attempt to downplay the cancelation only makes Vera feel silly for caring so much.
Lily comes home to find Ben’s thugs searching her room. Meanwhile, Ben conspires with Bel Jaffe (Michael Rispoli) to swing the odds on the fight by spreading a false rumor that Ben is betting big on the underdog. When Lily emerges to confront Ben, he tells her he’s only looking for “the truth.” Just then, Al calls him in to watch Senator Sloat (Brett Rice) on TV, telling a reporter he’ll never support gambling in Florida.
Over at the Atlantis lounge, Stevie gets a call from Lily, once again asking if he burned the pictures. Just then, Ben arrives to meet with Ike about Sloat. He demands Ike return the bribe money or get him a face-to-face with the Senator. Meanwhile, Janice is attacked by her boyfriend, who threatens to kill her for talking to Stevie.
That night, the Evans family dines with the champ. Out on the balcony, Danny (Christian Cooke) talks to Ike about his internship with Klein. Ike accuses his son of wanting to stay safe, rather than work at a lucrative law firm. When Danny brings up Ben Diamond, Ike becomes defensive and puts his son in his place. Danny reminds his father that he’s not like him or Stevie, before abruptly leaving.
As word spreads about the fixed fight, Ike uses part of Ben’s bribe money to bet on the underdog and bribe Sloat to vote no on casino gambling. Meanwhile, Janice’s boyfriend slips an envelope under Stevie’s door while Danny and Mercy (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) are fooling around inside.
While having sex in a dressing room, Stevie learns from Lily that the fight isn’t fixed after all. He rushes off to find Ike and the two head to Bel Jaffe’s backroom. However, Jaffe tells Ike it’s too late to change his bet.
While Klein and his men watch Jimmy Shoe’s car rise up out of the Everglades, Danny opens the envelope to find the photos of Stevie and Lily and a note reading “twenty-thousand dollars.”
Breakdown:
The fix is in, or is it? Does Ben know about Stevie and Lily or are the sordid details of the elder Evans boy’s mother-daughter menage a trois all that he’s after? This sixth episode of “Magic City” was full of fake outs and false hopes as Vera was once again let down by the future first lady and Ike became a big fish in Ben’s odds-fixing scheme.
Giving credit where credit is due, “The Harder They Fall” laid some much-needed groundwork in the relationship between Ike and Danny. After their father-son chat about swimming with sharks, Danny’s dilemma with Jack Klein is given more weight.
Meanwhile, Ike and Stevie continue to downplay Vera’s ambitions to become the first lady of the Miramar Playa. Without a child of her own or a significant role in the hotel’s operations, Vera’s left purposeless. Meanwhile, she’s constantly reminded of her former life as a star at the Tropicana. Will she realize, like Danny, that her true calling lies outside the walls of Ike’s palatial Miami playground?
While Danny and Vera struggle to find their way, Stevie and Lily continue to flirt with danger, despite Ben’s ransacking her room and those missing polaroids. Though on paper, the affair between the deranged mobster’s wife and his partner’s son should be ‘Magic City’s’ most dramatic storyline, neither character has yet to make me care about them or their presumably star-crossed love. Making the subplot more tiresome are the multiple false alarms with Ben. But now that Danny’s in the mix, after picking up the envelope meant for Stevie, things could interesting. At the very least, it brings Danny, who has been off on his own, deeper into Stevie and Ike’s world.
A few additional observations on “The Harder They Fall:”
– You wouldn’t think sun worshipper, Ben Diamond wouldn’t have such a pale derriere.
– Despite the fact that they’re one backroom tryst away from certain death, Stevie and Lily continue to have sex in public places, with Ben’s thugs just a few feet away.
– Ben’s right about one thing. Watching a fat kid swim by while you’re sipping on a sloe gin fizz kinda ruins the mood.
– Are we honestly to believe Danny and Mercedes have yet to do some “sexy maid” role-playing?
“Magic City” has definitely hit the ground running. The problem is that while the plot speeds forward, the characters are often left behind. Thankfully, things slowed down some in this sixth episode, giving a few of the key players some room to breathe and grow. Though I still don’t care much for Stevie and Lily’s pulpy affair, the show’s less sensational, but more solid characters and storylines are beginning to take root. If the trend continues, we may be treated to some “magic,” after all.
