In last week’s episode of “Black Bird,” we saw Jimmy Keane (Taron Egerton) in somewhat of a pickle after CO Carter (Joe Williamson) forced him to cough up $10,000 to keep his secret about being a snitch and a cop’s son hidden. So, Jimmy put his back into finding a way to get that money, either in cash or by moving drugs inside the prison. Thankfully, that problem momentarily solved itself as Carter stopped coming to work. We also saw Jimmy making a breakthrough in his relationship with Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), who proclaimed to his therapist that he considers Jimmy to be his friend now. But the enthusiasm for that achievement was short-lived as McCauley (Sepideh Moafi) informed Jimmy that he had to move fast in order to get the confession.
Spoilers Ahead
Jimmy And Larry Officially Become Friends Amidst A Prison Riot
“Black Bird” Episode 4 titled “WhatsHerName,” opens at a cemetery where Larry and Gary’s (Jake McLaughlin) father, Robert (Charles Green), works as an undertaker who buries bodies. We see Larry remembering his relationship with his father as he used to take him to the cemetery in the dead of night to unearth the bodies. To contrast Larry and Jimmy’s upbringing, we see a young Jimmy and a young James sharing an amicable bond, playing catch, talking about cars, and whatnot. In the present day, Jimmy sneaks into Larry’s cell to take a look at all his stuff. He initially finds nothing substantial, but then he comes across a stack of Penthouse magazines with violent drawings and sketches in them, obviously drawn by Larry. Jimmy returns to his cell and finds Carter waiting for him there. He grills Jimmy about getting him his money.
Larry, in a sing-song tune, says “riot quiet” and explains to Jimmy what it means (the meaning is very literal). He then asks Jimmy if he saw anyone getting into his cell, and it gets a little awkward, primarily due to Larry’s paranoia. We briefly cut back to Larry’s past as he assists his father to the graveyard, where he tells him to start digging while he rests. In the present day, Larry continues to get paranoid about Jimmy’s motives. So, Jimmy walks out on him. But Larry follows him to the courtyard. He reiterates that “something bad is going to happen,” thereby referring to the quiet before a riot. Larry admits that he is paranoid and apologizes for his behavior. A few moments later, a brutal riot breaks out. We see Larry and Jimmy rushing back to their respective cells. The following day, they make amends and cement the fact that they’re friends.
Larry And Jimmy Open Up About Their Past
All the inmates, led by Larry, are taken to the dining area to clean up the mess caused by the riot. While cleaning, Larry starts talking about working at a place specializing in medical supplies. They talk about their childhoods, and Larry sees his past with rose-tinted glasses on his eyes. But the cut to his actual past, with him crying and digging graves, proves that he’s lying through his teeth to impress Jimmy. Larry states that “happiness is a choice” because his parents weren’t happy. He asks Jimmy about his parents, and he praises James for being a great dad. However, a cut to Jimmy’s past shows all the time he had to spend without him because James wouldn’t come home for days because of his job and James’s arguments with Lynne (Kiley Casciano Davis). Which means he’s lying back to Larry.
Larry says Jimmy reminds him of Gary because they both talk so big. Jimmy admits he lied because that’s what guys do to impress other guys. Then Larry starts to get weird as he starts talking about eating pet chickens and dogs and the difference between eating an animal that isn’t one’s pet and one that is. We briefly see a young Larry grave-robbing for his dad. In prison, Larry talks about beauty and how death evens everything out. While taking a break, Jimmy talks about his father, and he lies about him being a fireman. He says that his mother owned her own bar and worked long hours. And his father evidently didn’t like it. Larry assumes that Jimmy’s mom used to have affairs with guys at her bar, and that’s why she and James used to have fights. That throws Jimmy off for a second.
Jimmy corrects Larry by saying that his mom was a flirt, but she (probably) never had any affairs. But since James was convinced she had affairs, there was no way to convince him that she wasn’t adulterous. Larry asks Jimmy how he felt about his mother’s flirtatious nature. Jimmy says that she was a piece of work and requests Larry to leave it at that. Larry responds to that by saying that his mom is fat and to leave it at that. He then asks Jimmy to tell him something truthful. So, Jimmy starts talking about Lynne’s abusive boyfriend, Glen. He says that he initially didn’t get why she didn’t just leave him. That’s why he assumed that she was waiting for him (Jimmy) to get old enough to protect her, and started training hard. When the time came, though, Jimmy couldn’t take on Glen and got beaten up pretty badly.
‘Black Bird’ Episode 4: Ending Explained – Gary Tries To Help Larry Understand The Gravity Of The Situation
When Larry asks Jimmy where Lynne was when he was getting beat up by Glen, Jimmy says that she was in the shower. He says that, later that night, she proceeded to have intercourse with Glen to rub salt into Jimmy’s wounds. When Jimmy starts talking about his wounds, Larry interrupts him to say that he was hurting not because of the physical wounds, but because of the mental scars. We cut to Jimmy’s past as he tells his mother that he wants to leave and go live with James. Lynne blames Jimmy for getting beat up and using her as the reason for trying to fight Glen. In the present day, Larry asks if Jimmy ever wanted to hurt his mother. Jimmy says that he did. When he says he sometimes wanted to kill her, Larry asks him to describe the details of his imagination. Jimmy says that he did want to chuck her down the stairs.
Larry asks if he ever wanted to do “things” to anyone. Jimmy, despite understanding what he means, says that he doesn’t understand what Larry is saying. Larry suddenly blurts out that he soaked a rag in starter fluid and put it in a mason jar in his van. Jimmy appears slightly rattled by this revelation. Larry continues to say that if one puts that rag over a person’s face, they fall asleep immediately. Jimmy asks, why would someone do that? Larry says he would do that to stop his victims (yes, plural) from hitting him. Jimmy reminisces about his womanizing days, apparently reflecting on his treatment of women. We briefly see the genesis of Larry’s murderous side before transitioning to him having a conversation with Gary. They have a causal argument about some girl’s name while Gary tries to make him realize the seriousness of the situation. Larry’s takeaway from the police digging up his past is that his release from the jail is imminent.
