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***Spoiler Alert***

Episode 2: “A Stone of the Heart”

“Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart” – W.B. Yeats, Easter 1916

Also known in my mind as the “RIP Tommy’s Jacket” episode.

Something I love about the structure of the show is the quotes within the first few minutes of each episode, starting with episode 2. Each quote relates to the episode title.  Kind of feels like you’re watching a play, with each quote setting up the next act.

Episode 2 finds Tommy and Kevin trying to cover up their involvement the murders of Louie, Sal, and Huey. RIP Tommy’s jacket from the epic Minetta Tavern hallway scene in Episode 1, which burns along with the rest of their clothes to get rid evidence. Kevin didn’t burn his jacket though, ’cause it’s his favorite, and I think we can all relate to Kevin in that moment.

An interesting character comparison emerges throughout the episode between Tommy and Kevin. The boys have to get rid of Louie Downtown’s body – no thanks to Jimmy – and Kevin falters during their plan of having to put the body in a barrel. Tommy steps up, the need to protect himself and his family coming before anything else, to do what has to be done. You feel for Kevin, he’s not as callous as Jimmy, not as logistical as Tommy, he doesn’t understand the calculating Tommy is doing in his head to work out a plan on the spot. You start to see how the neighborhood and the family dynamics have influenced each brother into the person they’ve become, and it gives a larger picture of how people who experience the same events can be shaped in very different ways.

Back to visit Sean in the hospital after the Minetta Tavern hit, Jenny and Tommy share a kiss in the hallway. Tommy lets his guard down a bit and Jenny, who admitted in Episode 1 she thought that Tommy had been the one hospitalized at first and she feared that he’d never know she loved him, gives in to what everyone knows is going to happen eventually. Just to crush his soul and the viewer’s at the end the episode by sleeping with him and then putting an abrupt end to things going any further. Not because she’s married with a missing husband, but because of what she pieced together about what happened with the Italians and Huey. It’s a huge blow to Tommy and opens up Jenny to a dark turn later on.

Favorite Scene: Tommy returning to the Minetta Tavern to talk to Nicky, only to find Kevin waiting for him as back up. True loyalty right there.  Also a great example of Joey Ice Cream breaking the fourth wall in his own story. 

Soundtrack: Every episode you get the sense there’s a radio playing in the background (children of today, do you even know what a radio is?); from someone’s window with the sound coming out onto the street; inside the diner; turned down low in the Firecracker. It’s a technique that isn’t seen much in TV, to have sort of this underlying layer of sound that seems like it’s just there in the scene already, not laid over. 

Continuity Issues: I found it interesting that the costume department chose to put Jenny in 7 For All Mankind jeans, which had emerged as a leading contemporary level line for women in the early 2000s, but were pretty high priced for jeans at the time. I bought a pair in the summer of 2007 at a jeans boutique in Soho and it was an event, the salesperson bringing me multiple pairs before we debated with my friend on what pair to buy. The brand didn’t sell jeans that you just bought on the fly, and it was probably too early for them to hit second hand stores in large amounts. Maybe a sample sale? The rest of Jenny’s costumes throughout the series don’t match with a girl who’d buy a $100+ pair of jeans brand new. These are things I notice, people!

“The Black Donnellys” is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, and DVD.  Also available to stream, with extremely annoying and poorly placed commercial breaks, on the NBC app or NBC.com

At the time of posting, the episodes are still out of order on the NBC app and website, so Episode 4 = Episode 2, Episode 2 = Episode 3, Episode 3 = Episode 4. The title of each episode should reference the quote slide within the first 5 minutes of the episode.

Episodes Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 3 (Unaired)

Episode Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 1

Sleepers: “The Black Donnellys”