I kinda like second episodes. They afford the some some more breathing room, and without the pressure of introducing characters, the show is allowed to expand its world and occasionally focus more intently on a single character. Bloodline takes the latter approach to “Part 2,” shining a light on the the youngest Rayburn, Kevin. The show still maintains its ensemble quality, but it’s a smart move to start fleshing out characters that aren’t John or Danny, both of whom we saw a lot of in “Part 1.”
While Kevin is established as the hothead of the Rayburn siblings – remember the argument over Danny’s date in “Part 1” – this episode doesn’t go to enough length to show us why. We know he’s deeply suspicious of Danny, but again, we don’t know why. Those complains aside, Norbert Leo Butz (he really does look like a young Sam Shepard) turns in a fine performance, better than the material he’s been given. My guess is that the writers don’t know Kevin all that well this early on, and after doing such a good job with Danny, maybe they were a little creatively exhausted. I know it sounds like I’m making excuses for Bloodline, but I guess if anything I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.
Kevin’s distrust of Danny really comes to the fore when their father Bob ends up in the hospital – right after Danny went to visit him. Danny says Bob had a stroke on his kayak, and Kevin believes 0% of that, in spite of the fact that the doctors all corroborate Danny’s story. This leads to a tense confrontation between the three Rayburn brothers, and Butz, Chandler, and Mendelsohn are already hitting a groove and showing the audience that they know how to push each others’ buttons.
It was nice to see Bloodline embrace its noir roots, and there’s a fun bit of cognitive dissonance seeing such hard-boiled tropes trotted out by people wearing flip-flops and shark’s-tooth necklaces (okay, I’m talking about Kevin. Dude dresses like a Sammy Hagar song. Probably bleeds Cabo Wabo tequila). Kyle Chandler’s dark voiceover bookending each episode makes for a nice, grim piece of foreshadowing (“Part 2” shows John showing up to Kevin’s cocaine shack to get a gun from him, and being told “It’s untraceable”).
But Bloodline is still good at tugging on the ol’ heartstrings, too. Danny knows that no matter how much he protests, his brothers will never believe that he didn’t hurt their father. So he admits to hitting the old man over the head with a kayak paddle, even though in a flashback we see that he was telling the truth the entire time – Bob had a stroke. Danny’s being pigeonholed as the bad guy here, maybe has been for his entire life. You can only call someone the bad guy for so long before they start believing it.
A Few Thoughts
- I’m giving this four stars, but it’s the kind of four with an asterisk next to it. The Kevin material didn’t land the way it should have, but once again Ben Mendelsohn proved to be Bloodline‘s savior
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Chloe Sevigny (looking damn good in shorteralls and a bikini top) shows up as Eric’s flirty sister Chelsea. I love Sevigny, so I am totally on board with this
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Now Sally wants Danny to come home, and asks John to relay the message. Sally needs to make her mind up, she just told Bob she was washing her hands of Danny
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Danny and Eric are stashing gas on an island for…someone. As Eric says, “They’re the kind of people who invented the phrase ‘Don’t fuck with these people,'” which is just a fantastic line
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