Watching Showtime

It’s election day, and before the sun sets there will have been some serious changes to the Caffee family. From Cath having to make tough decisions about her pregancy to Tommy having to make even tougher decisions about the election, everything will be different when it’s all over. And with a big reveal at the end, it’s a no-miss episode!

After getting screwed by the mayor, Tom’s got to step up his efforts on the street. He’s shaking hands and his sister is trying to redeem herself by leading the volunteers there to help. Even Michael and the rest of Freddie Cork’s boys are in on it, with Moe shuttling around a bunch of the elderly to be sure they vote for Tommy. Michael, however, is meeting with Nozzoli in secret, Nozolli asking him to drive an “out of town worker” to his job for him. Michael agrees to help him out, but I’m pretty sure that’s a HORRIBLE idea.

Colin’s over at Cath’s house, as the designated driver to take her to her abortion. She clearly doesn’t want to be doing it, and it sucks that Michael’s not the one taking her. He sure did give Colin the money to cover the procedure, though. Deco’s meeting with the Chief in secret to tell him Freddie’s helping turn out the vote for Tom Caffee. And now that Deco doesn’t have to be the super-secret undercover cop he was before, the Chief wants to make sure everything he’s doing is on the up and up, so as not to mar the good name of the police force. HAH!

Over at one of the election spots, Tommy and Eileen are posing for pictures and acting like the happy family they’re pretending to be. After they’re done there, Eileen wonders where they’re off to next, but Tommy asks her to just head on to another location to shake hands and get people to vote for him. He claims it’s so they can “divide and conquer”, but really, it’s probably because he wants to see his mistress for a bit. He gets rid of her and heads off to the next location, while Eileen goes off to her next stop in their busy day.

Michael picks up his “job”, a white middle-class man who looks nothing like the killer I’m sure he’ll turn out to be. While they head off to their destination, Rose is standing outside a Dunkin Donuts giving people fliers to vote for Tom. Mave walks up, all full of excuses as to why she hasn’t voted yet. This is the first time we’ve seen her since their friend passed away, bu tbefore they can get into that, the mayor pulls up and circumvents Rose’s efforts to get the locals to vote for Tom by papering for the opposition. Turns out they’re not just campaigning FOR someone, they’re campaigning against the entire Caffey Family, as the flier has pictures of both Tom and Michael on it! Rose storms into the Dunkin Donuts looking ready to kick som eserious ass! Instead of taking it out on the Mayor, however, she finds Tommy to show him the flier. He doesn’t seem too concerned about it, however, reminding her that’s just how politics works.

Deco’s at the bar, and he’s trying to get people to vote without doing anything illegal. So what he does is tell them that if they go vote (for Tommy, obviously) he’ll buy them two shots each. And then tells them to tell their friends. Jimmy’s out papering houses, and he runs into another one of the Mayor’s “supporters” who is ripping down their fliers and putting up her own. Bad business practices all around in this election!

Finally at their destination, Michael opens back up the trunk for his charge, who immediately puts on a bullet-proof vest and starts getting guns out of his suitcase. Looks like Michael’s getting enlisted to help, putting on gloves and grabbing a pry-bar to carry with him. This guy is like a machine, walking in like he owns the place and heading upstairs to find his victim without a second thought. Michael’s lagging behind, completely skeeved out by the whole thing (as he should be). Turns out the person they’re supposed to shoot isn’t home, so the job has become harder than they thought it would be.

Eileen’s at a call center, calling constituents to see if they’ve voted yet. Looks like they’re offering rides to people who need them, to help get more voters to turn out. Seems nice in theory. While she’s dealing with rude people, Cassie’s eating at a diner and runs into the “new guy” running against Tommy. His handlers have some interesting things to say about the lifespan of a Representative, and it looks like Cassie might be convinced. And Cath and Colin are at the clinic, where she looks like she’d rather be anywhere else. Colin reminds her that she doesn’t have to be there (”you have two, you can handle three”) and Cath starts talking about what it would take to do that, from getting a new job to how Michael would react. Colin even offers to help her out if she needs it! But she stays there, sitting stoicly with her decision.

Back on the campaign trail, Tommy’s made a pit stop to sleep with his mistress, who leaves wearing his flower. While that’s happening, his aide finds out they might just lose the election, thanks to the huge Latino turn out to vote against him. Now he’s got cause for concern, as he might just end up losing this war. After he sees that, he heads off to the Speaker’s to see if he knew the Mayor was going after Tommy. He needs some list from the Speaker to help combat what’s happening to his campaign. After he gets what he wants he heads to campaign headquarters to give the list to his sister. The list is a “caging list” … a list of people that aren’t allowed to vote that might try to anyhow. He’s sending his sister down to the Latino district to make sure none of these people vote so that he can win the election!!

Things on the campaign trial are getting ugly, as Tommy’s people are going door to door in the Hispanic neighborhoods telling people the voting has been extended an extra day, and so not to vote until tomorrow. This will keep them out of the polls and help keep the Hispanic vote down. From the phones, instead of just offering rides they’re smearing the challenging candidate, calling Hispanics and telling them he’s actually not as fond of them as he claims to be. Eileen doesn’t look too happy to have to give people that information. Rose, on the other hand, is plenty happy to deliver the news to her Hispanic neighbors. Anything for her kids, I guess. Tommy finally meets with the Mayor in order to settle their dispute. He tells the Mayor that WHEN he wins, he’s going to remember who was his friend and who wasn’t. Tommy also tells him that they should try to be friends again right now instead of after he wins the election like the mayor wants. In return, the mayor says he needs The Hill to be a very quiet place (which means no bitching when they turn his neighborhood into a shit-hole), and Tommy agrees.

Back at the scene of the would-be murder, Michael is worried about Cath, but is unfortunately distracted by the “killer for hire” from hell. When the wife of the man they’re there to kill comes home early, he knocks her out and has Michael ball-gag her and stash her in the kitchen. The poor woman is scared to death! Michael doesn’t agree with the contractor’s actions, and so starts to figure out a way to help the woman stay alive. Turns out she’s not as willing to help them as Michael would have liked, and he ends up putting the gag back in her mouth. Finally the husband comes home, to find his wife gagged and bleeding. Before Michael can even find out what he did to piss off Nozzoli, the contractor shoots him, then the wife, and tells Michael they’re ready to go.

Deco, taking 15 to go vote before the polls close, has a tough decision to make. Does he go with his friend, the people who have both protected him and ruined his life, or for the new guy. He runs into Cassie, and there’s some obvious cuteness going on between the two! While they’re being all cute together, Tommy’s on the street talking to as many people as he can, trying to garner as many votes as he can. By the time the polls close, Tommy’s freaked out because he’s still not sure if he can win or not. Who happens to be at the Democratic party but his secret girlfriend!

Cath and Colin are eating Chinese together at her house after getting back from the clinic, and he’s doing everything he can to cheer her up. Looks like these two are going to bond over her sadness, which probably won’t sit well with Michael. Hopefully it doesn’t go beyond friendship, but I’m betting it will.

By the end of the night, Michael finally shows up at the party to see how the results came down. They haven’t yet, and so he heads home to Cath to see how she’s doing. Tom runs into the head of the Latin American Council, who tells him in two years he’s going to run against him himself and will win after all that he and the rival did. Just then Tommy finds out he’s won the election. Back at Cath’s place, Colin’s asleep on a chair while they wait for Michael to pull up. She’s still waiting for Michael to show up and comfort her, but he’s nowhere to be found.

As Tommy and Eileen are leaving the party you find out he’s only won by 400 votes! And as they get to the elevator, who should be there but his mistress! Eileen looks over, sees Tommy’s boutineer pinned to her dress, and just starts laughing and laughing. Which I’d imagine is the only thing one could do in a situation like that. Another day, another episode for the Caffey family.

Catch up on old episodes:
season one recaps
One Too Many Mornings (s2, e1)
Down In The Flood (s2, e2)
The Lonesome Death Of … (s2, e3)
Not Dark Yet (s2, e4)
Dear Landlord (s2, e5)
True Love Tends To Forget (s2, e6)

Showtime, Brotherhood, Michael Caffee, Jason Isaacs, Thomas Caffee, Jason Clarke, Eileen Caffee, Annabeth Gish, Declan Giggs, Ethan Embry, Freddie Cook, Kevin Chapman, Rose Caffee, Fionnula Flanagan