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***Spoiler Alert***

Episode 10: When the Door Opens

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door open and lets the future in.” – Graham Greene

Also known as the episode in which Kevin gets hit with a “piss balloon”, and Jimmy is involved in one of the most brilliantly composed murder scenes of all time.

Tommy: “We’re all going to die.”

Just a casual declaration in the Firecracker, after Tommy turns down the deal with Nicky because Nicky won’t work with Jimmy. Tommy’s plan? To get on Dokey’s side to build up funds and manpower, to prepared when Nicky kills Dokey.

Sean meanwhile gets the boot from the real family business, crime, and momentarily quits as the beverage manager to make a point. But he ends up hanging with Nadine, the jukebox sales girl, so maybe his life is taking a better turn.

Joey meanwhile, in the “high point” of his life, gets to stay. Serve the drinks during the meeting, but gets to stay, and is brought into the inner circle of trust: Tommy, Jimmy, Kevin, and Joey.

The elder three Donnelly brothers meet with Dokey, asking for the 4 block radius where they live, kicking back 30% on what they earn. Dokey, of course, finds a use for them and sends them to help a friend clear out a building, conveniently in the new Donnelly territory. The building owner, Highland Management, bought out the tenants, but a small group of holdouts remains. So the brothers are tasked with removing them physically from the building.  

A dog bite, piss balloons, baseball bats, and Joey running with meat as bait. One of the holdouts, an Iraq vet in a wheelchair, Carr, becomes Tommy’s latest moral and ethical battle when he accidentally kills him, while the guy is choking Kevin to death. All leading to giving Carr a Donnelly style military battle, interwoven with flashbacks of Bobby Donnelly explaining to the boys how to fold the flag and what each flag means. The subplot is an interesting one that probably, and sadly, holds less importance to viewers today, but remember this was written and filmed about 5 years after 9/11.  

Whitey’s dropped off the earth, post Dokey’s henchman chasing him through the neighborhood in episode 9, because he knows Bob the Mouth’s death is the topic of conversation. Jimmy knows Whitey’s got to leave town, and so does Whitey, but he’s too distracted by trying to get Joanie to go with him to leave in time. Dokey tries to flip Whitey, to go to the cops and tell them Jimmy killed Bob the Mouth.  

And maybe Jimmy would’ve let him go, if Jimmy didn’t put the clues together and realize that Whitey and Joanie have been sleeping together. As Jimmy pounds on Whitey’s door, you realize the scene that Joey foreshadowed, one of the most brutal murders the neighborhood had ever seen, is coming quickly. Will it be Whitey or Jimmy? 

Jimmy says he’s going to kill him for the Bob the Mouth situation, but you know it’s about Joanie as well.  And as the fight begins, the background music comes to the foreground, as the scene plays out in silence, with Jimmy stabbing Whitey to death. Tom Guiry’s performance is so well done. The composition of this scene is BRILLIANT.  

Nicky’s chasing down the truth with Jack Trevor, Dokey, Sal, Alo, and Huey. While dealing with Vinnie’s stomach rash, who’s raging that Trevor’s chief of staff is doing renovations on a brownstone. Turns out the reno crews are on the city clock. 

Vinnie: “Who is she to own a brownstone?”

Mr. Reilly finally returns, from Coney Island apparently, with a sunburn and to an upset Jenny.  He’s cooking the wrong meals, fighting his old man friends, who think he’s wasted. Jenny finally gets him to a doctor, for the fight wounds, and what they both suspect is confirmed – Mr. Reilly has got a serious problem.

Samson the bread man pops back on the scene, taking the day off to spend it with Jenny at the hospital, and after she asks him to leave, he creepily shows up that night in the diner. Then he cries, scaring Jenny enough she forces him to leave, and he calls her a bitch as he walks out the door. You know this not going to end well.

Favorite Scene: It has to be the death scene with Jimmy and Whitey. It’s just so good.

Soundtrack: Again, the Jimmy and Whitey death scene sound composition is fantastic, the juxtaposition of the music and visuals, with the scene going silent is truly brilliant sound editing. 

“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.

Episode Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 11

Episode Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 9

Sleepers: “The Black Donnellys”