Public Morals Season 1 Episode 7 Review: Collection Day
Elizabeth Harlow
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Sometimes you have to look to the past to understand the future.
Quite a bit of back story was exposed on Public Morals Season 1 Episode 7, which helped viewers to understand the story even if forward momentum stalled out a bit on this one. We can only hope that the revelations of "Collection Day" result in a payoff down the road.
Overall, I found this episode to be a little lackluster. It wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't what I've come to expect after "A Good Shooting" and "A Token of Our Appreciation." There just wasn't anything extraordinary about "Collection Day. At this point in the season, tension should be rising and this just didn't deliver.
I was most disappointed that the cops didn't even figure Mr. O's murder out on their own. Muldoon didn't even investigate or verify Duffy's suppositions about Rusty. We know that he's right because we've been privy to both sides of the investigation, but Muldoon doesn't have that advantage.
Okay, so maybe you're not as freaking stupid as I've been giving you credit for all these years.
Terry Muldoon
I would have like to have seen more of Lt. King's story tonight. King may be the PMD's lieutenant, but he's still a black man serving in a white man's police force. His rank gives him even more insight to the racial disparity in the city. The idea that there's a kind of shadow police operating in the city is interesting, if upsetting in both it's tactics and it's necessity. That this played out while all the white cops were off collecting bribes made it especially poignant.
King had an almost throwaway comment to his cohort, Foster, that I think will prove to be significant down the road. He mentioned that he wanted his nephew for the PMD, but was was "railroaded by some Brooklyn Inspector who wanted his lily-white choirboy son in instead." The mystery of Shea deepens, but we haven't seen him in a substantial way for several episodes.
It's all Rusty's bullshit. Everyday that dumb shit does something to cause me grief.
Joe Patton
Rusty is becoming more and more erratic and unhinged, and yet there's a sweetness to him when he's courting Kaye. He still exhibits the same impulsivity and lack of foresight with her, so at his core he's the same guy. He really needs to listen to his uncle about timing.
Of course, he's frustrated since it does turn out that his thing with Kaye has (or rather hasn't) been going on for a very long time. His character is moving beyond the simple motivations of "young men wanting to take control from old men" that seemed to dominate earlier episodes. That's factored into his decisions, but more and more it seems to be about possessing what's been denied to him for years – mainly, respect from his father, and Kaye.
Well, he gives most people the creeps. That's what happens when you're a psycho.
Danny Elkins
The fact that his current nemesis is also unstable doesn't bode well for the rest of Hell's Kitchen. Unfortunately for Richie's sidekick, I don't think that finding out he's really just a farm-boy or his recent engagement are going to do his life expectancy any favors. Richie is all fired up, and thinks ahead even less than Rusty.
I'm curious how Richie will react to Theresa's death. I felt like he was mainly attracted to her because she was something he could take from his cousin, with her enthusiasm for his cause being a secondary turn on. Rusty's attack was brutal, especially, but will it have any real impact on Richie?
But then again, we are not dealing with highly intelligent individuals, are we? We're dealing with irrational, impulsive, usually completely shitfaced drunken lunatics.
Terry Muldoon
While revelations about gangster's pasts played out, there was also some (very minor) movement on Muldoon's home front. It's good to see Christine finally show some awareness and suspicion of Terry's work, even if her curiosity led her nowhere but to a pile of laundry. As for young James – I can't quite decide if he's gaming his father or if he really has buckled down. Maybe Terry does have the carrot and stick balanced with the kid after all.
Public Morals Season 1 Episode 8 looks to be promising , particularly with the imminent confrontation between Richie and Rusty. Rusty is also going to show us a little more of his softer side when he meets up with Kate. I'm really intrigued by the dynamics of that relationship, so hopefully it's more than a one off scene. Apparently, we'll finally learn Shea's fate, which should be interesting since we haven't seen him in a substantial way in quite a while.
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Elizabeth Harlow was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She left the organization in October 2018.
