Sarah Rayburn’s death cast a heavy pall over the eleventh hour of Bloodline. “Part 11” continued the show’s late-season streak of successes, and even approached something like profundity, which is a pretty impressive feat for a show that started out as high-minded pulp.
Bloodline made the transition from family drama to thriller so seamlessly it was almost unnoticeable. But John’s investigation, and the pressure it’s put on Danny, has really taken this show to new heights. Of course, Danny never lets the pressure get to him, which is kind of his thing now; I’m pretty sure he’s the only character on Bloodline who has never raised his voice. Have I mentioned before how great Ben Mendelsohn is? And how perfect his American accent is?
John and Kevin are full-on investigating Danny. It’s moved past the realm of mere suspicion. Kevin deduces that Danny was behind his attack, and Danny does little to deny it. “Let’s say I did send Eric after you,” he suggests, before apologizing halfheartedly. Danny showing his true colors is an ugly thing that you’re unable to look away from. John, meanwhile, accosts Carlos and forces Carlos to show him the inside of Danny’s shed, which has, like, all the drugs. Seriously, like eight or nine suitcases of coke. Kevin and Meg don’t want to report it, because of the damage it would do to their mother’s business. “If we move anything in that shed, we’re felons,” John says, a nice callback to his voiceover in the pilot: “We’re not bad people, but we did a bad thing.” Long story short, they move it onto Kevin’s boat, and John gives Danny one last chance to skip town.
It’s here that “11” gets truly menacing. Danny, of course, doesn’t make it far out of Islamorada, and the next day John is scrambling to find his daughter Janey, only to find that she’s on a boat with Danny. He calls the front desk at the inn and is told: “Your brother said not to worry because she’s with an adult,” an unveiled threat to Janey’s life based on something John told Danny when they were kids.
I’m not gonna lie: seeing Danny on the boat with Janey was genuinely frightening. Director Ed Bianchi, a veteran of Deadwood, uses silence to its maximum effect; “11” is mostly bereft of music, letting the waves and the birds speak to the characters’ isolation. Mendelsohn has done such a good job with Danny that it’s impossible to tell if he means to kill Janey or not, and when the cops contact John to say that they found the boat, an adult male, but no teenage female, it’s hard not to assume the worst. But Danny is playing a much more insidious game: Janey is alive and well, but wearing a seahorse necklace not unlike that of Sarah Rayburn. Danny has some fell notions in mind about every member of his family. “Part 11” was where he made the switch from thriller villain to horror movie villain.
A Few Thoughts
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Danny’s scene on the bus, talking to Sarah’s adult ghost, was some of the best, most human acting Ben Mendelsohn has done all season, and that’s saying a lot
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Poor Meg and Marco. I hope it works out for those crazy kids
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The noose is tightening around Danny, and he doesn’t give a single shit. What a character, what a performance. For all of Bloodline‘s occasional faults, I will continue to tune in, just to see Ben Mendelsohn
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As if to echo my sentiment about Danny from my review of “Part 10,” Chelsea says, “I know violent guys, and believe me, Danny isn’t one of them.” I TOLD YOU HE WAS INSIDIOUS
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