The New Canticle mission drive is holding at $87,000. Baz calls Pope from Mexico, asking for a favor. He won't be back stateside in time to pick up Lena from school. (Shocker). Baz promises he'll be home the next day and Pope agrees to take care of Lena.
Baz is snappy with Lucy, nervous about their first job without Smurf. Lucy's brother Marco arrives. He thought Smurf didn't want him involved in their jobs. Baz explains that he and the boys kicked her to the curb.
Amy asks Pope to lead the Bible study discussion.
A woman looks nostalgically around Deran's bar: "My friends and I used to sneak in here before we were legal." Deran wants to keep the place as "a good beach dive: good, cheap beer, no bullshit." He plans on opening up the main barroom and taking out the drop ceiling. "In a week?" asks Craig. That sounds too much like work to him.
The girl (Heather) asks if they're both the owners. Deran says it's his bar. "Technicality," pipes up Craig. Deran shows the girl a couple of firepits out back, which remind her of San Onofre "back in the day." "That's what I'm going for," says Deran, "Those Friday nights before this place got taken over by all the Newport money and tourists."
Heather announces she had sex in the bar's bathroom once with Jeff, a name Deran seems to recognize. "Oh, you're hired," says Craig. Deran gives him a really-bro? look. Craig wonders aloud if Heather is a sink girl or a stall girl. "Jesus, man," says Deran. Craig can tell Heather's a sink girl. Deran dismisses his brother with: "That's good, thanks, bud." Most awkward job interview ever.
Back to business, Heather says she's been a bartender for 7 years and offers to text Deran with her references. She can start next week if the place is open. Deran only has a temporary liquor license; the state inspector is coming the next day to issue the real one. "My ex tried to get one and couldn't, but he had a record," says Heather. Deran bites his lip.
"Later, sink girl!" Craig calls as she leaves. He nods to Deran. "I like her."
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On the surveillance monitor, Nicky sees Deran's Scout pulling through the compound gate with Craig at the wheel. She joins him in the garage, where he's loading sledgehammers and assorted tools into the truck. He tells her about the bar.
Nicky informs him Smurf and J will be gone overnight, so she and Craig could have the house to themselves. Craig thinks he'll be pulling an all-nighter gutting the bar.
After Bible study, Amy invites Pope to bring Lena to a church-sponsored kids' softball game the next day. She gives Pope her number, offering to pick them up.
Smurf and J arrive at a house way out in the desert. The long dirt driveway is lined with cars; the backyard resembles a less luxurious version of the Cody compound. Smurf takes a revolver out of the glovebox, warning J that Manny's crew is full of scumbags. When she exits the truck, we see Smurf is wearing a pair of black Chuck Taylors instead of her usual heels.
In the living room, they run into Craig's dad Jake. Hey, It's That Guy! Jack Conley appeared in another TNT series, Saving Grace, as Ham's gay brother Nick. Smurf introduces her baby daddy to her grandson. Smurf and Jake were part of the late Manny's robbery crew before he left California. They met when Smurf was 17 and Jake describes her as "sexy and tough as shit." She sends J to get them beers.
When J opens a cooler in the backyard, its owner aggressively slams the lid down again. The kid is one of the few white faces and really sticks out.
Jake exposits that Javi is now running Manny's crew, even though Manny wanted him gone. Javi beat one of his own guys to death and let his dogs, uh, dispose of the remains.
Craig returns to the bar to find Deran on the Internet, reading up on liquor licenses. Craig suggests they do after-hours parties. "And what? Get shut down immediately?" says Deran. He doesn't think his brother understands the gravity of the situation: "It's on me if some asshole gets drunk and gets in his car."
Craig puts on goggles, grabs a sledgehammer, and smashes it through a wall that's hopefully non-load-bearing. "Stop! Stop! What are you doing?" cries Deran. "Are you kidding me, man?" He points behind him. "I said that wall!" Maybe letting your cokehead older brother help remodel the place wasn't such a great idea?
Pope enters Baz's place with Lena, who asks when her daddy is coming home. "Tomorrow, hopefully," answers Uncle Pope. The kitchen is littered with empty beer bottles and Pope shakes his head disgustedly.
Craig asks why Deran is so tense, even though he literally just explained that. Deran worries his record will keep him from getting a liquor license. Craig shrugs, "Plenty of ex-cons have bars." If the inspector gives him any trouble, Deran can always bribe him.
Craig gives Deran a sledgehammer and a pair of goggles (safety first, after all). Deran hefts the hammer and mutters, "All right, you stupid mermaid" before smashing the wall with a mermaid painted on it.
J is just sitting down with a plate of homemade Mexican food when Javi joins him. He seems jealous that Smurf took in J (not like he's her grandson or anything). As far as J can remember, Smurf's never mentioned Javi. J says he's sorry about Javi's dad. "Manny wasn't my dad," says Javi, though he doesn't elaborate. It occurs to me Javi looks like a scarier, less attractive version of Theo Rossi.
Smurf goes into Manny's room, which has a hospital bed, IV pole, oxygen tank, and other medical supplies. Javi comes in. Smurf gives him an envelope of money.
Javi walks right up to her and creepily sniffs her hair: "I always loved that smell. Reminds me of those Sunday nights out by your pool. You'd bring out all that food and I'd eat 'til my stomach hurt...just to see you smile." So did Manny, Jake, and Javi's dad. "Back when you called us a family."
Javi remembers the night his dad took off; Smurf and Manny fought about what to do with him. Smurf practically growls, "You were a 10-year-old kid. You don't know what you heard." Javi heard Smurf tell Manny to throw him out. He calls bullshit that Smurf just came to pay her respects. Smurf calmly strolls out with a big, ugly turquoise necklace.
Down in Mexico, Marco asks if Baz wants to help him fence jewelry his crew steals from tourists. Baz can't; he has enough to deal with. He loads his Jeep with propane tanks and tools.
Lena looks up from her coloring to see Pope straightening stacks of magazines on the coffee table: "Why are you doing that?" Pope tells the kid the importance of keeping your things in order. He asks her if playing softball sounds like fun and Lena agrees to go with him and Amy.
There's a sudden thud from outside. Pope opens the door to see a pigeon lying motionless on the porch. "The sun blinds them. If it doesn't get up, Mommy hits them with a brick," Lena tells her uncle. They watch as the bird starts to flop around. Pope asks, "How long does it usually take to know if it's gonna get up or not?"
The pigeon raises its wing as if to defend itself. Pope picks up the designated pigeon-killing brick and tells Lena not to look. Before he can hit the pigeon, it awkwardly takes wing.
Lucy tells Baz how much her son Carlos likes having Baz around. Baz hopes the kid doesn't get used to it. She disapproves of Marco trying to play big with Baz; she thinks he's in trouble and might sell the bracelet someplace he shouldn't. Baz agrees to take it back to California with him.
Smurf and J indulge in some vodka in their hotel room. She explains Javi's dad pulled jobs with Manny's crew until he ripped Manny off. Javi's dad supposedly ran off with his ill-gotten gains. Smurf shoos J outside when Jake arrives. The kid tries not to overhear what they're saying.
Manny had dementia and his doctor advised him to record things, just whatever came into his head. All he did near the end was talk into a tape recorder. Smurf seems disquieted by that.
Nicky is disappointed that one of her girlfriends can't come over. She pours herself some vodka and starts snooping through Smurf's room. She tries on jewelry, discovers money in a drawer, and discovers an Uzi under the dresser. Oh, this isn't gonna be good!
"Don't get that gross skin on it," Lena requests as Pope heats some milk on the stove. Pope promises he knows what he's doing. Smurf used to warm up milk for him when he couldn't sleep "except she used the microwave, which was cheating."
Lena asks the heartbreaking question: Is Mommy dead? Pope lies through his teeth that there's no reason to think that. Lena wants to know why her dad isn't sad. "Your dad is sad. He's...secret sad." Pope, Lena is young, not mentally challenged. He goes on, "My dad left when I was little and I'm okay." That is a matter of opinion and mine is that Pope is fucked in the head.
J asks if Manny ran the crew or if the boss was Grandma Smurf. She chuckles that she was only 16 when she met Manny. He took her in after a 30-day stint in jail for shoplifting and taught her everything she knows. Her favorite scam was going into a store with Manny following like he didn't know her. Then he'd put a gun to Smurf's head: "Everybody would stop and stare at the skinny little blonde girl. They'd try to save her...with their wallets."
J wonders how Smurf went from being so close to Manny to not speaking to him for decades. She plays it off as "shit happens." Smurf repeats what Jake said about Manny spending his last days babbling nonsense: "That ever happens to me, I want you to put a bullet in my head. Swear." J takes her hand and promises, "I'll put a bullet in your head." Smurf proceeds to kiss J on the lips, stroke his face, and calls him a beautiful boy.
Craig and Deran take a break from bar demolition to have a beer. Deran doesn't want Smurf to know about the bar until they open; he's afraid she'll find a way to take the place away from him. Craig's phone buzzes. He announces he's breaking up with Nicky (a likely story). Deran thinks it's about time.
After Lena is in bed, Pope heats up the pan again and grabs onto the bare metal handle like the fucking lunatic he is. He stares at his burned palm, then wraps it in a towel.
J pulls into a diner parking lot: "Told you we'd find something open." He asks Granny to get them a table while he gets something out of the truck. Smurf takes a seat at the counter. Enter J, wearing a ski mask and holding a gun. He orders the waitress to empty the register, then demands the customers' phones and wallets. J holds the gun to Smurf's head and takes her outside.
Laughing and cheering, they jump in the truck and drive away. Smurf tosses the bag of phones out the window. Back at the motel, Smurf dumps the money onto the bed, praising J for a job well done: "You're a natural! Not like the other boys...I had to teach them everything." She pulls J down on the bed and they start wrestling, which is all kinds of creepy. "You are fearless." "Like you," J smiles.
At the Cody compound, Craig gives Nicky the famous "We need to talk" line. Nicky cuts him off, asking what happened with Camp Pendleton and why her dad became "besties with Baz for, like, a second." She thinks that whatever he did with the Codys is why he transferred to Guam.
Nicky gives Craig a Smurf-like guilt trip: He'd be dead if she hadn't pulled him out of the fire and in jail if she hadn't flushed the drugs. She wants him to stop treating her like a kid and takes a slug of wine. Craig acts like what he wanted to say was "Don't tell Smurf about Deran's bar."
Nicky toys with a strand of her hair: "I'm tired and drunk and I'd kinda like to have sex." Craig is only too happy to oblige.
At the bar the next morning, Deran is as cleaned up as he ever gets: hair in a ponytail, button-down dress shirt covering the tattoos on his biceps. He shakes hands with Brian the liquor inspector, who immediately starts asking questions. How'd Deran pay for the bar? "Savings," he replies, which isn't a total lie. His other occupation is property manager for his mom's rental houses.
"I have a record," Deran blurts out. He stole a car when he was 22 and served 5 months in jail. Deran reveals more of his background. He used to be a competitive surfer, even qualifying for the West Coast Championships. By the time he was 20, he thought he had a real shot at getting sponsored, "then it just flamed out." Deran was afraid he'd never have anything of his own again and started doing "a lotta stupid shit."
Brian asks if Deran knows the definition of moral turpitude. "I'm guessing it's not a good thing," he chuckles nervously. Brian explains his job is to assess how likely Deran is to commit future acts of it: "Don't give me a reason to turn you down. And thank you for not giving me some story about being wrongly accused or trying to bribe me. You wouldn't believe how many people we turn down for that."
When the inspector leaves, Deran does a kind of restrained happy dance. Deran is my favorite character and I'm so happy to see him have a chance at a legitimate business away from his toxic mom. I hope Smurf doesn't find a way to make it fail somehow so he has to move back in.
At the motel, Smurf leans way too close to a sleeping J and whispers in his ear, "Come on, baby. Time to go home."
Amy arrives with a bag of picnic food and asks to talk to Pope in private. She wants to come clean about something. Amy lost custody of her 8-year-old son Christopher because she got into a DUI crash with him in the car. He wasn't hurt, thankfully. She didn't want Pope to hear it from someone else and understands if he can't see past it. Oh, I wouldn't worry about Pope judging you; DUI is nothing compared to murdering your adopted brother's baby-mama.
Amy notices Pope's bandaged hand. He fibs that he burned it helping Lena make pancakes. He suggests they eat Amy's picnic food on Baz's porch instead of going to the softball game.
Baz shows Gia the emerald bracelet he brought in from Mexico. She isn't sure what she can get for it, but she'll ask around. Baz tells her he'll be bringing in credit cards a few weeks from now. Gia balks. "Smurf told you not to work with us, didn't she?" Baz guesses. He and the boys could bring her a lot of business. Gia is sorry, but she can't help him.
Pope hears Baz's key in the lock and turns to his niece: "Remember what I told you." "Don't talk about the lady from the church," Lena repeats. She runs to give her dad a hug.
Outside, Baz shows Pope the tools he bought for the church job. He tells him the bad news about Gia and Smurf's fence in San Pedro. They can't find a new trustworthy buyer for the credit cards in two weeks. "Gia was hustling antiques on the Strand before Smurf found her," grumbles Pope. Baz suggests they make a new fence instead of finding one.
Deran, pulling down brightly painted ceiling tiles, asks how the breakup went. Craig is all "yeeeaaahhh, about that." Deran isn't surprised.
Baz sweet-talks Gia's business partner Monica. Loyalty to Smurf got him nowhere. Does Monica honestly expect any different? Also, does she know anyone who can handle 400 credit card numbers?
At home, Smurf places the ugly turquoise pendant on her bed amidst the stolen cash and wallets.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, Javi opens a cigar box and finds Manny's tape collection. End of episode.
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