Bloodline recap: Part 17

John hits the bottle, which, fair. It’s been some stressful times. He has a vision of Danny in his living room, but no, it’s actually Nolan doing that spooky Danny thing. John tells him they are going to have a talk: He confronts Nolan about telling Lenny and Eric about seeing him in Miami. John tries to spin this as he did with Sally, that he was trying to help Danny out. Nolan is like, sure okay, but my dad never told you about me? And that’s when we all have to remember that Nolan is just a kid after all, he’s not Danny Two. He’s sad, and he misses his dad and doesn’t understand what the hell has happened. John feels it too, I think. He tells him: Your dad might not have been a good father, but he was not a bad guy and I’m sure he meant to do right. Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing. Way to go, John. They are actually having a rather nice moment when John gets a call from Meg reminding him that Kevin is screwing up all his carefully laid plans. John realizes just how bad this might be and goes looking for Kevin.

We know where he is, outside of Wayne’s house. Kevin, noooooooo. Kevin gets out and walks toward the house. He’s stopped by some bodyguard. Kevin is like he wants what I have, and when Wayne shows up, Kevin — in a move that only a small child would think would work — tosses him the coke, says he’s sorry and is like okay now that’s done! He flees and of course Lowry’s goon follows. Kevin is so high and stressed out he crashes into a truck.

John is having a panic attack in his car as he realizes that all his good work is going down the drain. And that’s when he’s visited by the ghost of Danny smoking and laughing and saying things like, where’s it going to end John? He gets a call from someone presumably telling him what’s up with Kevin. He goes down there and learns that Kevin’s going to have to be arrested because he had coke on him. John tells Kevin that he’s going to get arrested, not to say a word, and oh yeah, you messed everything up.

Wayne goes to meet his partners — he’s like here’s the drugs. Don’t murder me! We’re back in business. The big dog tells him he gets one more chance.

The father of the murdered girl is told that Wayne Lowry, the man presumably responsible for her death, is taking a plea deal. Grieving father looks unconvinced that this is awesome news. He asks John as a fellow victim (I know) if he thinks it’s fair or just. John is like come on, man. It’s our only option.

John goes to meet Wayne. He tells him the deal is still on the table. Wayne is like, pass. And oh, you’ve got a hell of a family. We can all see his point. Wayne is all, in fact, why don’t you let me tell you how this is going to go. I’m going into business and you are going to help me or I am going to sell you out.

John is back in his car and so is the ghost of Danny: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Story of my life. Oh great, ghost Danny is big on self pity, too. Are we to believe that Danny has become the voice in John’s head? Perhaps, as John tosses the idea of just giving up and confessing to everything. Ghost Danny says he’d be impressed by that move but then everyone would know that “John Rayburn” is a lie.

Sally is told there’s a lady who wants to talk to her — it’s Evangeline, Nolan’s mom, who is dressed insanely. Sally takes her around and gives her a tour and is friendly, but then Eve finally is like, oh you don’t recognize me?

Diana is all hiiii shady husband. She’s like, listen what is up with you? Your mom told me some stuff, such as you going up to Miami and etc. etc., and he tries to dodge it all, but she gets mad that he would want to help Danny after everything that happened with their daughter. John explodes. He’s like, well Danny is dead now, so who cares! And Diana looks shocked by the force of his rage.

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Meg goes to see Kevin in jail. Belle is upset, of course, and she lies to Kevin that she’s able to push New York off for a while. Kevin is a wreck and asks not to tell Sally about this till he can. He also says he thinks he needs real help so that is encouraging.

Eve sits and has tea with Sally. She dances around things a bit, but it soon becomes clear that what she is here for is money. She shocks Sally when she tells her about the arrangement she had with Robert. Sally… does not take it well. She dismisses Eve in a polite but chilly fashion and leaves her eyeing the rich customer’s luggage.

NEXT: It’s all about sugar loaf. And Hank!

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John smokes outside and greets Meg. Here’s something that’s been bothering me. Where the hell is Surf dog? Anyway, he tells Meg he’s in a jam with this Wayne Lowry thing. He tells her that no matter what happens he’ll keep her and Kevin out of it and asks that she take care of Diana and the kid. Meg is like, okay, so now you have totally freaked me out. But she promises.

At work John sits in with the Feds to hear what the latest is with his blackmailer. There is a new shipment coming in, and they are looking for local sources. So John goes and visits with Hank, who is an army vet and a real Mosquito Coast type who keeps listening to everything and everyone from his tree shack. In other words, I love him. John comes in at full Coach Rayburn, with booze and charm and asks Hank for information, and this can’t be good.

Meg goes to see her mom, who is delighted to see her. They get to chatting and Pops Rayburn’s secret account comes up. Sally asks if it’s true there was an account and Meg reluctantly tells her it it’s true. Of course, when Meg heard the name Evangeline she assumed Robert was having an affair. Sally laughs and laughs at this and tells her the truth. She’s Nolan’s mother. She’s also an accomplished identify thief, as we see her call and get the credit card number from the rich people at the hotel. Damn.

John and Marco go off to tell grieving dad that actually, just kidding, Wayne Lowry is not taking the deal. Later, we see grieving dad praying while looking at his daughters’ picture. That is sad.

Meg finds out, unsurprisingly, that she is fired. Well, what did you expect Meg? Still this stinks. She goes to a bar and drinks into it. She then sees that Marco is out on a date with a pretty brunette. Uh-oh. Meg starts laughing at her life… and then drunkenly approaches him. Marco is thrown. Uh-oh. The new girlfriend, Gabriella is all, oh hi I’ve heard of you. And I’ve heard of you. Then Meg goes into a drunken blah blah blah awfulness about sleeping around and Marco being nice and yeah, we’ve all seen versions of this, right? Marco is like, yeah, time to go. Woof.

Wayne calls John to ask where it will be safe for him to land his illegal shipment. John weakly tells him he can try to steer people away, but Wayne is like, nope do better. Dang, Wayne.

John comes home to one pissed-off Diana. He apologizes for his behavior that morning. He tells her that Kevin was arrested and Diana is like, geeze this family is a wreck. He tells her there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for her and the kids. She says yeah.

In the morning John has a vision of what his family’s life would be like if he were in jail — spoiler, not great.

So now there’s a cop pow-wow, and John tells him about Hank, and clearly John is up to something. But what? He calls Hank and gives him the heads up that the Feds are coming to talk to him and that Hank knows what to do. He then meets with Lowry and gives him seemingly good information and tells him that Sugar Loaf is clear. Wayne gives us all a lesson about mutually assured destruction.

Kevin is out of jail, and Meg explains just how bad things are. She also tells him that she’s scared and not going back to New York, but doesn’t tell him it’s partially his fault that she got fired.

Eve is with Sally again and tells her she met Danny when she was singing in a club. Hmmm. I think not. She says she loved him. Sally gives it to her straight: She’s not giving her any money. She also said that she warned Eve back in the day about Danny. Eve is sort of like hey, this is messed up? Robert wanted to support us? And Sally is like, oh f’n well.

It’s the moment of truth. Will there be a bust of human or drug smuggling or whatever? Will John help Wayne? Or will he come clean? It’s so hard to say. John is acting nuts, but it sure seems like he helped Wayne.

Ghost Danny appears (of course): to mess with John’s head some more and to ask if he’s sure he’s doing the right thing. They talk about how Robert always talked about convictions and not being able to change a man’s mind.

But wait! It turns out that John set Wayne up! The DEA is there and there are cops and Marco and bright lights and oh boy, what now. Ghost Danny, like me, says he thought he’d go a different way. He says guess you aren’t a bad guy like me? And then he posits, and he may not be wrong, that maybe John is tired of not being caught. Totally plausible.

John gets the call from Marco: They moved on Lowry and told to get down to the bait shop. And hang on: Lowry is dead. Stabbed TWELVE times! Guess who killed him? The grieving father of course! He confesses the next day, and John has to restrain himself from hugging him.

Grieving dad is untroubled. He says that confession is good for the soul. And guess what? He looks a hell of a lot more at peace than John Rayburn.