The heat is on as the D.A.'s office closes in on Albie Roman.
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You always know you're going to get good TV when Marcia Cross shows up. The Desperate Housewives and Melrose Place icon popped up briefly at the end of last week's Monarch, but this week she's coming to the show full-force, playing Skyfair (Skyfare?) CEO Skyler Samms. She's apparently been in touch with Luke Roman because she wants to buy a controlling interest in Monarch. And for whatever reason, he seems to think now is the time to take her up on the ask. While Luke acknowledges it'll be tough to get his family on board, he tells Skyler not to worry: He's got a 40 percent stake in the company, after all, so all he needs is one family member to flip.
It's pretty clear early on which member is going to flip, I think. When Nicky comes out of the meeting and runs smack into her old flame Wade, we get the suggestion that she's about to face some personal and professional crossroads, and she's going to have to figure out what's best for her. In a way, it's about Nicky coming into her own as an artist and a woman. But the show doesn't really hammer that point home as it could. Instead, we're reminded that Wade is kind of an adorable f-boy while Jamie, lover of kitchen-counter romance, is more of a keeper. Of course, all is not as it seems there, either, but more on that in a bit.
Questionable murder charges
When Albie goes to Tripp's office to see what's what, his old DA friend tells him that the bloodwork is back and it's a match to Nicky, not him. Tripp doesn't think Nicky killed Clive, though, and tells Albie that he'll need him to confess, especially if he wants any leniency from the DA's office. Tripp says it's "Murder 1," which ... is it? From the hundreds of episodes of Law & Order I've watched, I'd argue it's manslaughter with improper disposal of a body or something, but all the same. Why doesn't Albie have an attorney at this point? What about Nicky? And can you even convict someone of murder with no body and a single drop of blood? Apparently, you can, but it would seem like any good TV defense attorney could get a couple of second-guessers on a jury. That's apparently not how this whole thing is going to go.
After Skyler gives Luke 48 hours to get the Monarch deal done, she uses a sweet little butterfly metaphor to describe how the beautiful creatures, for whom the label was named, lived for only six weeks, a weirdly-small period of time "for all that majesty." "Your label is beautiful," Skyler says, "But everything dies eventually. Without me, so will Monarch." I'd love to know what Skyfair's actual offer or pitch is, but that's unclear so far. I will say that I hope we get to see more deviance from Marcia Cross, who can deliver the best of them. And, I wonder if she's had a man (or a producer?) inside the label the whole time, perhaps doing due diligence.
Things are getting messy with Luke, Gigi, and Kayla.
Meanwhile, it would seem that turning down the Yellow Roses has made Gigi more popular than ever. She's invited big producers from Nashville and L.A. to come to meet with her, and she's positively stoked about the meetings. (Why her wife/manager didn't do this and didn't attend the meetings is anyone's guess, but I digress.) Ultimately, no one shows, which is a full disgrace, but we learn later it was entirely Luke's doing. He canceled all the appointments to show Gigi what it would be like in a few years when Monarch can't pay top talent like other mega-conglomerates.
It is worth noting here that Kayla's the one who figures out Luke's doings because she knows him pretty well. When she goes to confront him, she has well-timed contractions, and Luke rushes her to the hospital. She's fine, of course, and as Luke comforts her and the pair hold hands, Gigi walks in. She later questions both Nicky and her wife about it, and both assure her it's absolutely nothing. The other shoe's going to have to drop eventually, and when it does, it's going to be messy.
Nicky channels her mom
When Nicky meets with Skyler, she doesn't let the CEO make a pitch. Instead, Nicky comes in hot with demands. She wants a 50-city tour, stadiums, and arenas only backed up with a 20-piece band and a full-effects slate. She wants her own satellite radio channel and a book deal, too. Nicky thinks it's about time she became a global brand. And if she's going to go against her family, she's going to need Skyfair to make her a household name. When she storms out, sure she'll never get it, Luke follows. It seems Skyler was impressed with Nicky's volition, so much so that she also offered her a production company because that's what famous people have these days, even if they don't do anything with them.
A quick note here: If no one has offered Nicky a tour yet, there's no way she should head out trying to sell 40,000 seats a night. That's a fast track to Groupon BOGO seats, and it's a pretty bad look. I admire her tenacity, but also she's not rooted in reality. What it is rooted in, I suppose, is some Dottie-esque tenacity, which Earl points out while he and Nicky walk in the park. He quotes her mom to her when he says, "Not getting what you want is hard. But getting what you want can be downright terrifying."
The only person truly adamantly against the merger seems to be Albie, who I think is holding on to dreams of his marriage and of the music industry that doesn't really seem to exist. He's so mad at Luke that he throws a glass at him in the bar, but Luke holds firm. I'd love, someday, to see their backstory. What drove a wedge between them, and why is Luke so very different from his old man?
Nicky seeks out Wade for some career advice and asks him to open her arena tour. He says for her, anything, and then goes in for a kiss just as Jamie walks in the front door with BBQ. Jamie balks, understandably, and tries to break up with Nicky. Ultimately the two get back together, of course, but it's touch and go there for about 10 minutes.
The big merger vote and dirty politics
During the Skyfair vote, things go about as one would expect, with the notable exception of Nicky voting for the merger and Albie being totally okay with it. When she asks him if that's what Dottie would have done, he tells her yes, "but she wouldn't have looked like she'd lost her best friend. She'd be popping champagne."
Later that night, Nicky actually does seem to be doing a bit of celebrating with Earl, but it's quickly quashed when a huge cadre of cops roll up to the Roman estate. They're there because Nicky is a "person of interest in the disappearance of [her] husband, Clive Grayson," and she needs to come in for questioning. Why that involves about ten cars, a SWAT team, and actually folding the little singer into the back of a cop car is unclear, but Albie recognizes it as a ploy to get him to confess. "Politics is a dirty business, and sometimes if you want to be a big fish, you've got to land a big fish," Tripp tells Albie. After the singer threatens him with exposing his past vehicular incidents, Tripp balks, saying something to the effect of, "Who do you think people will believe? Some kid fresh out of juvie or the future governor of our great state?" Albie concedes, telling his old friend he'll turn himself in tomorrow morning.
When Albie tells Nicky as much later, she fights, saying she won't let him take the fall. Albie rightly admits that it was his fault, in that he did actually kill Clive, though Nicky thinks there still must be another way. "I've got plenty of regrets in my life," Albie retorts, "But Clive? He ain't one of them." He's resolved to spend the rest of his life in jail, which seems terrible but also not out of character for Albie. After all, what's so great for him about being on the outside, other than having access to whiskey and his truck?
The episode's big climax comes when Nicky goes to Jamie's hotel room to tell him she messed up. She wants him in her life, she says, and a worldwide tour will never keep them apart. When she nervously spills the news about Clive and her dad, though, Jamie already knows all about it, filling in details about how Clive actually attacked Nicky, only to have Gigi knock him out with the wine bottle. He knows Albie and Luke swooped in to clean up the mess, too, and as Nicky stands flabbergasted, Jamie tells her that he loves her and that if he could spend the rest of his life with her, he'd die a happy man. But, of course, Jamie says, he asked for Nicky's truth, and she deserves the same. He's not who he's claimed to be after all, but before we find out who he actually is, we get a hard cut into the show's credits, meaning we'll have to wait until the next episode to find out what's what. I'm leaning toward a security operative, mole, or someone Dottie placed before her death, but hey, it's Monarch, so anything is possible!
Stray observations;
- Gigi's cover of Elle King's "America's Sweetheart" is lovely and apt. She does make some offhand comment later in the ep, though, about how she doesn't want just to chase people who write songs or do covers. She wants to be a singer-songwriter like her dad. I'm interested in whether Monarch ever goes that direction, a la Nashville or Empire, or if we continue just to get jukebox covers that are either directly identified as such or, in the case of some of Dottie's hits, supposedly by a Roman in the first place.
- This week's Ana and Ace story is basically "she wants to be together, he promised his mom." There's a live-streamed video she says will make everyone start to ship them, and a weird kiss that ends the whole thing, and then she brings an asshole date to Albie's party just to make Ace jealous. He's basically pulled straight from central Chad casting, implying Ace is one of Ana's backup dancers and calling her a "tease" when she won't make out with him in the parking lot next to his electric blue Corvette. She gets a good punch in while Ace watches, and the two resolves to be together, no matter what Nicky and Catt want. This, also, can only end poorly, but hey, what can you do? They're two kids in love!
- Why was there a cleaning lady dusting the entryway table in the Roman house while Nicky and Albie talked? Is that another DA spy?
READ MORE: Who's Who in Country Music: A 'Monarch' Character Guide
