Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Full Circle shows us a side of New York that we don’t often get to witness in films. Soderbergh and Ed Solomon (the writer) make us privy to the underbelly of the society and the characters who live and operate from there. The series makes us aware of the economic disparity that exists in our society and how desperation and a lack of resources decide the fate of an individual and traps him in a swamp from where there is no way out. So, let’s find out what happened in this recap of the first episode of Full Circle.
Spoilers Alert
Why Did Mrs. Mahabir Leave For Georgetown?
At the beginning of the first episode of Full Circle, we see a masked man hastily sitting inside a black car where a woman and another man are waiting for him. The man handed over a bag full of cash to his partner, who exclaimed that there was more money than he had expected. We don’t know who these men were or what they were up to, but what we could ascertain was that they had committed some kind of crime and probably stolen that bag full of cash from the victim. We came to know that a man named Quincy Mahabir, who was the brother-in-law of a woman named Mrs. Mahabir, had been killed. Aked, the nephew of Mrs. Mahabir was getting agitated as he wanted to take revenge on the perpetrators, and he didn’t understand why they weren’t responding in full force and teaching them a lesson.
Aked, while talking to Garmen, who was one of Mrs. Mahabir’s right-hand men, said that their people were looking up to them, and if they did not respond in a befitting manner, then the opponent gang would think that they were weak. He told his aunt, as soon as she came out after paying her respects at the funeral, that Edward Chung was behind the murder of her brother-in-law. But Mrs. Mahabir told Aked that they were not going to act in haste. She said that things were not as simple as they seemed, and her brother-in-law had been murdered because of something that happened a long time ago. She told Aked that she was going to Georgetown, Guyana, to get some guidance from her mentor, and she assured him that they would retaliate with full force when the time came.
Mrs. Mahabir met an old man who looked like the leader of some cult, and he told her that there was a reason why such bad luck had fallen upon her family. He said that he had found the man who was responsible for bringing tragedy to Mrs. Mahabir’s family and that he was willing to allow her to change her family’s destiny. The old man gave Mrs Mahabir a piece of paper on which a photograph of a family was printed, and at that point, we didn’t know who that family was and what Mrs Mahabir’s gang was going to do with them.
Why Had Ms. Mahabir Called Louis And Xavier To New York?
After getting the guidance, Mrs. Mahabir started selecting candidates fit for the job, and she told her men that she needed people who were in no position to ask any kind of question and do whatever was told to them. Mrs. Mahabir told Garmen that her masseuse, Natalia, had a brother who got into trouble some time back, and he wanted to come to New York. Natalia’s brother, Louis, and his best friend, Xavier, met in Georgetown after being told that Mrs. Mahabir was going to give them a job in New York.
The two boys were elated, and they couldn’t believe that they were finally going to New York. They had been told that everything would be taken care of, and if they followed orders, they would be paid handsomely. Louis and Xavier came to New York, and they met Aked, who made them understand what was expected of them and told them about the people under whom they were going to work. Mrs. Mahabir wanted to test them before sending them on the big mission, so the boys were asked to kill a man named Neilson, by which Mrs. Mahabir’s insurance and trust agency was going to benefit. Xavier took the lead, and he injected the man with some poisonous substance that had been given to him by Paul Tranquada (Mrs. Mahabir’s henchman) earlier. Louis got nervous when they reached the crime scene, and Xavier had to literally drag him from there and bring him back home. Louis and Xavier had no clue that they would be made to do this kind of work. Louis got angry at Natalia for keeping him in the dark but she told him that her hands were also tied and she was indebted to Mrs Mahabir.
Xavier might have killed the man and earned the trust of Mrs. Mahabir, but he was not a criminal, and time and again, his conscience was telling him that whatever he had done was not right. Meanwhile, Harmony, an agent who worked for the United States Postal Inspection Service, approached Xavier and asked him if he knew anything about the man who had been murdered recently. Xavier didn’t tell her anything, but she gave him her card in case he changed his mind. Harmony wanted to be a part of Mrs. Mahabir’s case, but her supervisor, Manny Broward, wasn’t letting her handle it. Harmony had decided that she would work on it in her free time and try to find the evidence and connect the dots to find the perpetrator. After Xavier got to know that Mrs. Mahabir was planning to do something at Washington Square Park, he informed Agent Harmony about it and asked if she could get him back home to Guyana. Agent Harmony said that though she wouldn’t be able to do that, she could compensate him fairly.
Was Asked Able To Kidnap Jared?
Jared came from a privileged background, and of late, someone had been stealing his belongings. His parents, Sam and Derek, thought he was just being careless, and Jared was sick and tired of getting constantly scolded by them. Mrs. Mahabir’s plan was to kidnap and kill Jared, as she was told by the old man in Guyana that it would set things right and she would be able to come full circle. Nicky, the boy who had stolen Jared’s stuff, contacted him and said that he would show him all that he had stolen if he came to see him. Jared agreed, and he snuck out of the house without telling anyone. That day, Jared’s parents had to go to attend a social event, and his grandmother was looking after him. Aked and his men had been monitoring Jared’s movements for quite some time, and accordingly, they had planned everything. But that day, Jared canceled his tuition class because he had to go meet a boy named Nicky. Aked got paranoid when Jared didn’t turn up to meet his tutor, but he spotted him going around on his bicycle and told his men to follow him.
Aked caught him after following him for a few blocks, and he made the call to Sam and Derek and asked them for a sum of $3,14,159 if they wanted to see their son alive. Mrs. Mahabir had specifically told Aked to ask for that sum because of some unknown reason. It could have been possible that her mentor would have told her that the particular number had some significance. As soon as Chef Jeff and his wife Kristin learned about their grandson being kidnapped, they rushed to Sam and Derek’s place. They were still figuring things out when out of nowhere, Jared came back to the house at the end of Full Circle Episode 1. Nobody could understand what was happening, and they asked Jared if somebody had tried to kidnap him. Jared told them that Nicky, the boy who had stolen his belongings, was wearing the same clothes that he had stolen from Jared earlier.
After Jared met Nicky, the latter asked if he could drive his bicycle for a bit. Jared agreed to it, and that was when Aked and his men arrived at the scene. They had mistaken Nicky for Jared and kidnapped him. Now Jared’s parents didn’t know what to do next, as the life of a small boy was at stake. They knew that they would have to involve the police, as sooner or later, the kidnappers would come to know that the boy in their custody was not Chef Jeff’s grandson, and then they would come for Jared once again. The kidnappers started sending Sam and Derek the video of Nicky threatening to hurt him. The poor boy cried for help, and he said on the phone to call a person named Charisse. We don’t know who she was and what she could do to help Nicky. In the upcoming episodes of Full Circle, we will learn what happens once Mrs. Mahabir and the kidnappers learn that they kidnapped the wrong person and how Jared’s family tackles the issue.
