Episode Title: “World in Changes”
Writer: Mitch Glazer
Director: Simon Cellan Jones
Previously on “Magic City:”
“World in Change” answers a few not-so-burning questions left over from last week’s episode. Like is Theresa the elevator girl dead after getting a vicious beating from Bel? Nope, she’s still alive. Oh, wait… Ben just shot her.
And who exactly was that guy Danny was trying to stop Doug from shooting at the gun raid? It turned out to be Victor’s cousin and Miramar Playa kitchen employee, Alberto Lozaro. Yeah, remember that guy? No? Well, it doesn’t matter; he’s dead now.
Last week’s episode tried to raise the stakes by having Danny (Christian Cooke) risk his internship with the D.A.’s office to save a guy we barely knew. Danny tells Klein (Matt Ross) he thought he could get Alberto to talk and it’s enough to get him off the hook, for now. But things don’t go as well with Mercy (Dominik Garcia-Lorido). Danny decides it’s a good idea to let her know what Alberto was involved in at his own wake. Mercy won’t listen to Danny’s warning and of course this will only drive her closer to Antonio. The lesson here for Danny seems to be “pick a side,” but neither one is all that interesting.
As for Stevie (Steven Strait), the elder Evans boy seems much closer to making a big move. When Ben offers him the opportunity to run Madame Rene’s new whore house, Stevie asks “why me?” It seems like a silly question after Ben’s speech about how Ike will never let Stevie run the Miramar Playa, but it’s all the more reason for Ben to target Stevie, who got Ike’s good looks, but apparently not his smarts.
Stevie asks the same question of Lily (Jessica Marais) when she begs him to come over and put on a show for Ben. After getting an earful from Nicky Grillo about how Lily uses and then loses men, Stevie wants nothing to do with her. Ultimately, it’s his ego and not his own safety that keeps Stevie from giving in. Or is it love? Stevie and Lily’s relationship never appeared to based on anything more than sex, so why should we believe otherwise, now?
With Ben pretty much threatening to kill her if she doesn’t bring Stevie home, Lily finds a look-alike on the beach and buys herself another day of wedded bliss with the Butcher. Why she doesn’t just leave Miami and shack up with another, less psychotic sugar daddy, is anyone’s guess.
Also still refusing to leave town is Judi Silver (Elena Satine). Thankfully, her appearance in this episode is of little consequence. Klein brings Danny along to bust an erotic photo shoot at a motel of which a bound and gagged Judi is the star. Doug (Todd Allen Durkin) can’t believe she’s still hanging around and neither can I.
The big developments in this episode come from Ike (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Vera (Olga Kurylenko). Ike’s Cuban connection comes through with the lottery numbers, which will allow him to take a big chunk out of Ben’s bankroll. He and Meg (Kelly Lynch) also enlist a group of newspaper reporters to help expose Ben and alienate him from his political connections. And after seeing Stevie dealing cards at Ben’s poker game, Ike decides to let him run the DJ convention on the grounds that he stop working for the Butcher. As tensions between Ike and Ben rise, it’ll be interesting to see how Stevie plays the two sides.
And finally, at the advice of her doctor, Vera decides to retire from dancing and Ike is fine with that. Ben Diamond, and Eddie Blue who suggests Vera should partner her act with the hotel’s forthcoming casino, may not be. Either way, as long as Vera stays in the mix, it’s a good thing – especially now that she knows that Ben is Ike’s minority partner. When Ike tells her he plans to rid himself and the Miramar Playa of the Butcher, Vera says “it sounds dangerous.” And with that, she might just have proven herself to be the only person in Miami with a brain.
