[8.2/10] I am a sucker for a good story about people getting what they want, but it coming at a price. That’s so true for Black Monday’s second finale, and it makes it a much stronger finish than last season.
In the clearest victory here, Mo manages to take down Connie. Using his old Black Panther connections, he has one of his former allies insinuate himself into her love life, implicate her in an off-shore bank account, and throw her to the wolves with the feds. In the process, he also manages to complete his immunity deal to where he’s free to go, and even gets a rousing “Power to the People!” from the old crew who helped achieve this bit of vengeance and justice.
But the end result of his grand scheme and his exoneration not only results in him losing his chance to make this whole thing all about him -- something Dawn accuses him of and which he accepts is his M.O. -- but it costs him Dawn herself. This was supposed to be his martyr play, to free her and prove that he’s changed, while still getting to take credit for the biggest thing to shake Wall Street in a half century. Instead, he loses that, and Dawn says she’s done with him.
Dawn’s ending is bittersweet too. She steals that move right out from under Mo, confessing to having masterminded Black Monday in a way that sends her to jail. And yet, at the same time, she finally gets written up in the paper for who she is and not what she is, a begrudging form of recognition that can only come from infamy. She’s earned the spotlight and notoriety she always wanted; she gets the credit and beats Mo at his own game, but she also loses her freedom over it. It’s a hard cost to have to pay.
Keith, on the other hand, after being disposable to so many people, finally finds a friend. Lenny legitimately wants to make him his replacement brother, likes Keith for Keith and not just as a necessity or an accessory. But in the process, Keith discovers that Lenny isn’t right in the head and willing to leave his own brother to die in the process. It’s not the type of seemingly lifelong commitment anybody should want to make.
Last but not least is Blair. He finally has the power and influence he’s always coveted (or at least coveted over the past year). But it costs him his fake wife, the man he actually cared for, and the last bit of decency he seemed to have in him.
The show belabored the “When something breaks, you can’t always put it back together, but you can use the pieces to move forward” line twice in this season’s endgame. But it pays off in a pretty shocking way when we learn that Blair may have killed his abusive father. The interesting, if on-the-nose line, in the exchange between him and Mo comes down to the idea that Blair is embracing this darkness, but it may not have been given to him by Mo, just awakening something that was already in him. It’s an interesting notion, but a kind of crazy one to introduce in the eleventh hour for the now truly amoral Congressman. Still, it completes Blair’s descent, while leaving him room to evolve as a character.
The only bit I didn’t really care about here came from Yassir and Wayne’s escapades involving Just For Men. Wayne’s scheme to get back at them was pretty lame, but I did get a mild kick out of Yassir’s turn toward feminism all just being a pose to try to date one of his coworkers. It feels on brand.
Those two aside, what I like about this one is that it leaves everyone having achieved some manner of victory: Mo is off scot free, Dawn gets the recognition she deserves, Blair attains power, and Keith has his friendship. But there’s a dark side, a price, something that tempers those victories and gives each of our main characters a little more than they bargained for, which is often the sign of good storytelling.
Overall, this has definitely been a stronger and more unified season of Black Monday, with the plotting still becoming byzantine in places, but ultimately coming together in a much more satisfying way. High hopes for season 3!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-08-01T20:59:36Z
[8.2/10] I am a sucker for a good story about people getting what they want, but it coming at a price. That’s so true for Black Monday’s second finale, and it makes it a much stronger finish than last season.
In the clearest victory here, Mo manages to take down Connie. Using his old Black Panther connections, he has one of his former allies insinuate himself into her love life, implicate her in an off-shore bank account, and throw her to the wolves with the feds. In the process, he also manages to complete his immunity deal to where he’s free to go, and even gets a rousing “Power to the People!” from the old crew who helped achieve this bit of vengeance and justice.
But the end result of his grand scheme and his exoneration not only results in him losing his chance to make this whole thing all about him -- something Dawn accuses him of and which he accepts is his M.O. -- but it costs him Dawn herself. This was supposed to be his martyr play, to free her and prove that he’s changed, while still getting to take credit for the biggest thing to shake Wall Street in a half century. Instead, he loses that, and Dawn says she’s done with him.
Dawn’s ending is bittersweet too. She steals that move right out from under Mo, confessing to having masterminded Black Monday in a way that sends her to jail. And yet, at the same time, she finally gets written up in the paper for who she is and not what she is, a begrudging form of recognition that can only come from infamy. She’s earned the spotlight and notoriety she always wanted; she gets the credit and beats Mo at his own game, but she also loses her freedom over it. It’s a hard cost to have to pay.
Keith, on the other hand, after being disposable to so many people, finally finds a friend. Lenny legitimately wants to make him his replacement brother, likes Keith for Keith and not just as a necessity or an accessory. But in the process, Keith discovers that Lenny isn’t right in the head and willing to leave his own brother to die in the process. It’s not the type of seemingly lifelong commitment anybody should want to make.
Last but not least is Blair. He finally has the power and influence he’s always coveted (or at least coveted over the past year). But it costs him his fake wife, the man he actually cared for, and the last bit of decency he seemed to have in him.
The show belabored the “When something breaks, you can’t always put it back together, but you can use the pieces to move forward” line twice in this season’s endgame. But it pays off in a pretty shocking way when we learn that Blair may have killed his abusive father. The interesting, if on-the-nose line, in the exchange between him and Mo comes down to the idea that Blair is embracing this darkness, but it may not have been given to him by Mo, just awakening something that was already in him. It’s an interesting notion, but a kind of crazy one to introduce in the eleventh hour for the now truly amoral Congressman. Still, it completes Blair’s descent, while leaving him room to evolve as a character.
The only bit I didn’t really care about here came from Yassir and Wayne’s escapades involving Just For Men. Wayne’s scheme to get back at them was pretty lame, but I did get a mild kick out of Yassir’s turn toward feminism all just being a pose to try to date one of his coworkers. It feels on brand.
Those two aside, what I like about this one is that it leaves everyone having achieved some manner of victory: Mo is off scot free, Dawn gets the recognition she deserves, Blair attains power, and Keith has his friendship. But there’s a dark side, a price, something that tempers those victories and gives each of our main characters a little more than they bargained for, which is often the sign of good storytelling.
Overall, this has definitely been a stronger and more unified season of Black Monday, with the plotting still becoming byzantine in places, but ultimately coming together in a much more satisfying way. High hopes for season 3!