TV Review: MAGIC CITY: Season 2, Episode 8: The Sins of the Father

Magic City The Sins of the Father Review. Magic City: Season 2, Episode 8: The Sins of the Father was one of the best episodes of the season and the culmination of all the episodes and schemes since season two began.

What could have been the dullest segment of the episode, the senate vote on the gambling bill, was it’s strongest. The fate of almost everyone in the episode was affected by it.

The viewer never expected the tension to rise so high. This narrative escalation didn’t happen (to this extent) at the end of season three of The Killing but it did at end of season two of ABC’s V. The viewer sat through surprise after surprise after surprise during The Sins of the Father.

Magic City turned from the story of the American dream set in Miami to the final act of a mafia movie. No one was safe and relationships were changed forever.

In the last two episodes of Magic City: Season 2, Ben “The Butcher” Diamond (Danny Huston) changed. He has never been scared of anyone or anything, except the person he learned the blood trade from. The Butcher instilled fear, thrived on terror he generated. Seeing him trepidatious was something new. Diamond knew the game and that his time was up, his transgression to great to be forgiven.

In these two episodes, he had been supplanted as the show’s menace by Sy Berman (James Caan), whose volatile nature was even more subtle than Ben Diamond’s. This  rendered him that much more dangerous than “The Butcher”.

Both of Stevie Evans (Steven Strait)’ prophecies about his father and his stepmother turned out to be true or came to be. The first one the viewer knew to be true the moment Stevie said it. It was in all of Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)‘ actions all season long. The fact that he could not see Meg Bannock (Kelly Lynch)’s attraction showed how clouded he had become by his hotel and his dream. The Stevie Evans / Vera Evans (Olga Kurylenko)’ situation at the end of the episode was fantastic and out of left field. Vera did not know if Ike had cheated on her or not but still she went to Stevie. It was incredible to witness. Was she there to spite her husband or because she wanted to be with someone that wanted her?

Danny Evans (Christian Cooke)’ speech was heart felt and pitched just right to Jack Klein (Matt Ross) and emotional to Ike. He gave the most far reaching performance of the episode. Cooke dug deep and it showed.

Judi Silver (Elena Satine)’s end was unforeseen but she had been living on borrowed time for some time. Like Saxa’s end on Spartacus: War of the Damned, Silver was able to die in the arms of someone that cared about her. In that respect, she died better than most in this episode.

Many of the season finales this year have not delivered the way this episode of Magic City did (Game of Thrones not being among them). Many were not brave enough to kill off main characters or almost kill them off the way Magic City did. Magic City almost adopted during this episode a philosophy Game of Thrones has since its inception: no one is safe.

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