In the 3rd episode of Smoke, Michelle made a breakthrough, as she actually found a piece of evidence that pretty much proved that Potato Chips set fire to various parts of the woods in Umberland whilst driving down the road chucking modified cigarettes at stop signs. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be used as a part of the investigation into the arsons because the place where the evidence was found was never treated as a crime scene. So, Michelle had to shift her focus to the breakthrough made by Dave, who had discovered that Milk Jug used black polythene bags to carry the plastic milk containers full of gasoline to his desired locations. There were 2 convenience stores that gave out such bags, and Michelle wanted them to be fitted with QR codes so that they could be scanned and traced back to their buyer, thereby revealing the identity of the arsonist. Since that plan was too expensive, it was hilariously shot down by Harvey. Hence, Michelle put her work on the backburner for a while to deal with her family issues, i.e., the parole hearing of her mother, Renata. Meanwhile, Freddy tried to bring about some change in his miserable life by aiming for a managerial position at Coop’s Fried Chicken, but that backfired horribly. What drastic step did he take as a result of that? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Benji Apologizes to Michelle
In episode 4, Dave is helming a seminar for new recruits for the Umberland Fire Department, where Michelle is in attendance as well, and teaching them about how fires and arsonists work. Once the session is over, Michelle heads over to the local cockfighting ring to talk to Benji for the first time since their last fight after Sophie’s birthday party because she doesn’t want Renata to get parole and be out there in the world burning things down like she did all those years ago. I don’t know how I am going to sound here, but I’m going to say it anyway. Whenever there’s a character from a minority community who happens to be a law enforcer, they’re shown to be turning a blind eye to certain crimes to “support” their people. The intention behind it is to highlight the class divide that exists between the majority community and the minority community and how the latter has to earn by hook and crook in order to survive while the rest cruise through life.
I understand that Arch having an armory and Benji attending a cockfighting session aren’t the same thing, but the law is the law. There should be appropriate punishment for each of these instances. If Michelle is coming down hard on Arch and giving Benji a free pass, it just weakens her as a character and furthers all the hateful stereotypes that people are raring to use against anyone who has any amount of melanin in their skin. And I’m bringing this up because the show itself has referred to Michelle as a “D.E.I. hire.” I don’t know what needs to be fixed in this fictional show or in real life, but something has to change. Anyway, coming back to Michelle and Benji, they have a chat about Renata, Benji apologizes for his inappropriate behavior with Michelle over her actions at the parole hearing, and they proceed to hug it out. Hopefully, in the future, they’ll be able to sort out their differences regarding Renata sensitively and logically.
Dave’s Sob Story
Back at the Umberland Fire Department, Michelle approaches Harvey with a cost-effective idea to tag the black polythene bags in order to catch Milk Jug: bird tags. Harvey approves this approach; hence, Michelle and Dave get busy putting bird tags in black polythene bags. Once they are kind of done with that, they crack open a bottle of what looks like Buchanan’s Scotch whisky and open up. Dave reveals that he is on his 2nd marriage—we don’t know what happened to his 1st wife—and Michelle hints at her fling with Burke. When Michelle basically says that Burke isn’t all that good in bed, Dave’s insecurity spikes, and he “relates” with Burke without even knowing the guy and even tells Michelle to go easy on Burke because he might be under a lot of pressure.
FYI, Dave usually needs pills to perform in the bedroom; hence the relatability. The topic of their conversation then shifts to escapism and victimhood, and the examples that Dave uses to define who he thinks is a victim and who is merely playing the victim are sort of troubling. But just as you are about to judge him, Dave breaks out his sad backstory about how his mom disappeared when he was 15, presumed dead, but a few weeks later, he learned that his mom had actually run away with a 27-year-old substitute teacher to “restart her life.” Instead of being bogged down by that revelation, Dave apparently moved on by convincing himself that his mother died in a ditch somewhere, which explains his overall approach to women and life in general.
Dave Messes Up
At the Gudsen household, Ashley and Emmett are seen having a nice dinner and making plans for the weekend. Of course, the topic of Dave comes up, and it’s evident that Emmett is weirded out by him, which is why he thinks that Ashley should break up with him; he doesn’t say that, but it’s obvious that that’s what he is thinking. To be honest, I don’t know why Ashley is with Dave. Is it a financial stability thing? Is she in love with him? Is he holding her hostage? Does she just love this toxic situation? I’m really confused. Anyway, the following day, Dave apologizes to Emmett for almost lashing out at the kid and his mom instead of understanding what they’re going through because of Gerard’s big career move. Emmett seemingly welcomes this, and, on top of that, Ashley even gives Dave an opportunity to prove that he really cares about this family by giving him the simple task of picking up the kid from school. Dave accepts the task. But after dropping off the plastic bags with the bird tags with Michelle—following which he makes some sexually charged (read: creepy) advances towards her, which are subtly deflected by Michelle—Dave goes back home, starts working on his book, and forgets all about Emmett.
Meanwhile, Michelle is already at the office tidying up her workspace, which is when she finds the business cards of a cop named Ezra Esposito. Harvey tells Michelle that he used to work with Dave a long time before she joined the fire department. Michelle wonders why there aren’t any files on the guy. Harvey says that apparently a gag order was sent by him or someone else, which prevents anyone from learning anything about Ezra (which is weird). Michelle tries to probe Harvey a little more, but this investigation is interrupted by Emmett, who has come there searching for his stepdad after he didn’t show up at school. Michelle agrees to drop Emmett off at home, and when Ashley learns about this, she goes absolutely ballistic. Emmett walks in on the 2 having a fight, where Michelle says that Emmett needs to “man up,” while Ashley says that Dave needs to spend less time on that book and more time on his family and work, because his writing skills are absolute dogwater. That last part is hilariously confirmed by Emmett after he secretly listens to Dave’s audio files.
Freddy Is Milk Jug
We get a glimpse at whatever’s going on in Freddy’s life. Of course, he hasn’t secured the job. His already fragile masculinity has apparently become more brittle. When he gets an email about penile enhancement pills, he gets even more depressed and decides to go to Brenda’s salon to, well, not look as docile as he does right now. Brenda is usually very nice with Freddy, but something about his attitude ticks her off. Yet she tells him to swing by the salon after hours, and she’ll see what she can do for him. Freddy acts in a very stubborn fashion, so Brenda has no option but to shut the door in his face and meet him after she is done attending to the regular customers. She does wait for Freddy to arrive, but he never shows up. Instead, he uses his amateur barbering skills to shave his head, his mustache, and also his eyebrows.
It was already difficult to identify Freddy based on that initial sketch, and now he has rendered that sketch pretty useless. By the way, in the last few articles, I had expressed some confusion about whether or not Freddy was actually Milk Jug, because we never saw him do the crimes that Milk Jug was accused of. Hence, I assumed that he was just a weird loner who was being framed by Dave to distract everyone from Potato Chips’ activities. Yeah, that assumption was wrong. Freddy is Milk Jug, as we see him filling milk containers with gasoline, duct-taping a piece of rope to it (which’ll act as the fuse), putting them in black polythene bags, and storing them in the cabinet. Based on the number of milk jugs that are in there, it seems like he is planning for something big. Well, let’s just hope that at least one of those bags has a bird tag, as that’ll help Michelle track him down and nab him before he turns the entirety of Umberland into a pile of ash.
The Curious Case Of Ezra
Before dropping off Emmett at his house, Michelle asks him if he knows anything about Ezra, given how he was Dave’s partner. Emmett says that he’s never heard of someone called Ezra. He even says that he didn’t know that Dave has a new partner now until he came across Michelle, which is understandably weird. I mean, if you and your colleagues spend as much time together as Dave does with Michelle, won’t you at least mention them to your family in passing? Sure, Dave, Ashley, and Emmett aren’t on particularly good terms, but it’s odd that they have no clue about his professional partners. Harvey is apparently the only exception here because Emmett is familiar with him and vice versa; everyone else is off-limits. Speaking of Harvey, Michelle ambushes him at the bar with drinks and slyly gets him to talk about Ezra (even though Harvey is legally obligated not to do so). He says that, during target practice, Ezra “accidentally” shot himself in his left foot and then sued the Umberland Fire Department. He got full benefit and pension, and he prevented anyone from talking about him ever again.
This sounds odd out of context, but when Harvey says that Ezra used to cook up conspiracy theories about Dave being an arsonist, it all makes sense. What I’m saying is that it’s possible that Dave is the one who shot Ezra in the foot and threatened his family or loved ones after Ezra confronted Dave about him being a serial arsonist. Hence, Ezra retreated from the public eye and has kept away ever since. Michelle is heading down the same path since she’s secretly investigating Dave; if she’s not too careful, her fate might be worse than that of Ezra. At the end of Smoke episode 4, we get a really odd scene between Dave and a BDSM lover that he randomly meets at the supermarket. I couldn’t really make out if this whole sequence is happening in real life or is just a figment of his imagination. However, it’s safe to say that Dave isn’t just an arsonist because he loves to destroy things; he is actually sexually aroused by fire (which is something that I’m hearing for the 1st time in my life).
