'Mayor of Kingstown' Episode 3 Recap: Mike's Plan Unravels as Bunny Loses Ground

Mayor of Kingstown Episode 3, entitled "Five at Five," is a study in tough transitions. Written by Keli Goff and directed by Tasha Smith, this week's installment delivers a major blow to Jeremy Renner's Mike McLusky and his grand plan for peace in the valley. His partnership with Bunny is one provocation away from total dissolution, and Kingstown's prison reform is set to blow the lid off of whatever simmering tensions remain after the riots. In worse news, Aidan Gillen's Milo Sunter has expanded his clandestine operations, and his sights may be set on Mike. 

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Warning: Spoilers ahead for Mayor of Kingstown Episode 3.

Milo Is Making Moves

The first few shots of the episode are from Milo's point-of-view. The Russian mob boss enters his freaky little hideout in the church basement, where Iris (Emma Laird) is asleep in bed. He lays down on the ground next to her and says that he's spoken to Candace, the girl who arranged Milo's phone call with Mike last season, and who showed Mike the tracker that Milo's girls carry. We then get a shot of Candace lying limp on the ground, and Milo confirms that Candace said it was "just Iris" — a confusing line. What does Candace have to do with Iris's return? Maybe Candace was guarding Milo's hideout when Iris walked in, or maybe she let Iris in.

Milo would be wise to ask Candace if Iris had Mike or the Feds tailing her. Fair enough. But why did Milo kill Candace? Because she saw Iris, or because she saw Milo? Neither one is a strong justification. The rest of the episode makes it pretty clear that Milo's escape is an open secret among his cohort, so there's likely some information we're missing here. Meanwhile, the Feds are looking for Iris. Mike warns one WitPro agent that if they force Iris to testify against Milo, she's a dead girl walking. 

In other news, Kingstown PD has raided Bunny's grandmother's house, aka "The Commons," on a CIA tip that there was drug activity there. Mike is enraged that Ian and Stevie moved on Bunny's family while the Crip boss is in prison working to establish peace for all parties, but Ian (Hugh Dillon) insists they were just doing their job: "You want us to stop being police, Mikey?" Mike meets Bunny (Tobi Bamtefa) at Tent City for a debrief, but he doesn't disclose that his grandmother's house was raided. Bunny asks that the guards take "five at five" tomorrow, a 5-minute period in which they turn their backs to let the inmates settle scores, and Mike promises to arrange it. 

Kyle (Taylor Handley) returns to KPD Homicide Division and asks Ian for his job back. It turns out he quit his new gig upstate because he was suspended without pay pending the investigation into last week's traffic-stop shooting. But KPD can't reinstall Kyle until Internal Affairs clears him of wrongdoing, and that could take a couple months. Later on, Mike enlists Kyle in the search for Iris, telling him to check out train stations, bus depots and shelters. 

Mike To the Rescue

Mike heads to Milo's bar, where Joseph (George Tchortov) is doing some accounting and playing coy about the boss's whereabouts. Just then, one of Milo's girls, Tati (1883's Gratiela Brancusi), walks by with a crying baby. Mike instantly clocks that the child is likely Joseph's, which wouldn't go down well with Milo. Later on, we see that Iris has been moved into her new digs at Milo's brothel. She's receiving a new tracking device, and Joseph is clear that she should be raking in $5k per night. If she doesn't hit that target, he says, "we have a problem."

Mike, Evelyn (Necar Zadegan) and Kareem (Michael Beach) tour the Warwick Detention Center, the only private prison in Kingstown. (The rest of the city's pens are operated by the Bureau of Prisons.) Warwick is the only prison that didn't break out into chaos during last season's riots, but, as Kareem notes, when there's no yard, commissary or leisure time, there's no chance for inmates to congregate — let alone to conspire. Warwick is obviously more authoritarian than the old Kingstown Pen, and it's soon to be the new normal. The majority of Tent City will be moved to Warwick's Anchor Bay prison, provided the state legislature goes through with the plan. A privately-run prison could complicate Mike's job as the go-between for inmates, prison leadership and Kingstown police. 

Back at Milo's brothel, we formally meet Tati, the woman with the baby that's probably Joseph's. She's the den mother of the establishment, and she treats Iris with a disturbing mix of tenderness and disregard. She's given Iris a baggy of opioids to make her first day easier. Later on, Tati appears outside Mike's office and tells him where to find Iris: "You wanna put on a cape and save this girl, I can leave a door open for you in the alley at the club."

Mike takes Tati up on the offer that night. He sneaks into Milo's club through the side door, and one of Joseph's goons knocks him out as soon as he enters the upstairs apartment. (Either Joseph keeps the place on lockdown, or Tati set Mike up.) When he comes to, Joseph tells him that Iris is either dead or "in a rich man's bed." Mike manages to wrest Joseph's gun away, and, on his way out, he vows to find Milo.

Bunny Issues an Ultimatum

At Tent City, the guards perform their "five on five" just as Mike arranged. Bunny directs his cousin, Raphael (played by rapper D Smoke), and one of the Mexicans to take down a Blood. The Bloods then jump Bunny at his bunk, and the ensuing brawl is the first time we've seen Bunny's fury unleashed. Prison may not be his element (Tent City Bunny is very different from the jovial Bunny who sold drugs from a lawn chair), but he's a formidable fighter. 

Mike heads to Tent City for a much-needed meeting with Bunny. Both men are covered in bruises. Bunny heard about the raid on his grandmother's house, and he's disgusted. Their pact is hanging by a thread: "Might not be no coming back from this." Mike can't control his people, so why should Bunny play ball? If Mike doesn't get him released from prison in the next two days, Bunny will hit him where it hurts. "You can't protect me, my people," he says. "So I gotta do it." Read: Bunny's move to establish order will be at the expense of all the rival gangs, which will inevitably escalate things in Tent City and in the streets.

New episodes of Mayor of Kingstown premiere Sundays on Paramount+

READ MORE: Where is 'Mayor of Kingstown' Filmed? Inside the Crime Drama's Abandoned Prisons and Picturesque Lakes