Evil Monkey
Yo, would you tell Ms. Chase that I still love her like crazy?
Season 1
Episode 6
Editor’s Rating
Photo: Apple TV+/Copyright protected
Everyone is running from something in the latest episode of Evil Monkey. Yancy is running from the law, Bonnie… is also running from the law, and the Dragon Queen is running from what she perceives as a life of stagnation on Andros. While each of these characters wades through plenty of chaos, they all also find moments of catharsis in their endeavors.
Yancy caps off the episode by asking his old buddy Rogelio for help, claiming he’s “in a pickle, maybe even a jam.” It feels like Ro gets these calls from Yancy quite often, and he’s kind of tired of taking them, but he also loves his friend very much. He’s also torn because Sonny got him to admit he helped Yancy after the Miami police came looking for him. At the end of last week’s episode, Sonny threatened to lose his job, so Ro gives up on his buddy pretty quickly here. When Yancy arrives at Rogelio’s house, the cops are there to arrest him. Womp, womp. It’s a pretty jaw-dropping moment of betrayal, but honestly, what did Yancy think he was going to do? Keep running forever? With a rotten finger in his pocket?
Again, we get the feeling that these are the kinds of crazy activities Yancy regularly partakes in, but he believes breaking the law to get justice is justified. Yancy is a huge fighter for justice and he wants Nick to be held accountable for his crimes. He isn’t clear about Eve’s involvement, but he knows she’s also very suspect. The police arrest Yancy and the episode keeps him away from the rest of the action for the majority of the runtime. It’s fun to watch him spar with the police, but it’s also frustrating because we know Yancy and his antics are impossible to control. Could this possibly be the very first time this guy has been arrested? Or has he been arrested before? Join the discussion!
There’s a lot of back and forth between Mendez and Yancy, with Mendez threatening and boasting and Yancy giving it all back to him sharply. Then, in a last-minute twist, Ro comes to the rescue. Suspecting that Mendez is hiding something, he questions the (racist) lady who saw Yancy coming out of O’Peele’s apartment. Apparently Mendez doctored her testimony and told her to leave out the part about the “one-armed man” she saw at the crime scene. Oops. Mendez runs and Yancy can leave.
The feud between Mendez and Yancy has become a little tiring, and I hope this episode’s resolution means Mendez is out of the picture, at least for now. I enjoyed Yancy’s admission that he was the one who ripped the guy’s mailbox out of the ground – if nothing else, Yancy is a man of honesty and principle who isn’t afraid to take responsibility for his actions.
The episode juxtaposes Yancy’s brutal honesty with Bonnie’s plight. As I mentioned last week, this storyline doesn’t really feel like it’s a part of everything else that’s happening, but we get a fair amount of the wonderful Scott Glenn (!) waxing poetic about nature and responsibility, a cover of Charlotte Lawrence’s “Wildflowers,” and Bonnie’s escape on a hovercraft, so it’s not a total waste of time.
Bonnie is a very lost soul. She defines herself primarily by how others see her, and finds her self-worth in men who see her as a manic, elfin sexual object, but she begins to see how that perspective could be damaging to her and everyone around her. As the episode begins, Yancy comes home to find her and Cody in his house. On high alert for anything threatening or suspicious—a weird guy reading Richard Russo in the middle of his living room would be one example—Yancy throws the boy to the floor. Bonnie defuses the situation and asks if she can stay at the Yancy family cabin. Yancy says yes. This man really thrives on chaos.
When Bonnie and Cody get there, Yancy’s father is there. Scott Glenn is the picture of calm cool as he entertains his unexpected guests. He relaxes with them on the dock and gives Bonnie valuable advice. When she respectfully rejects his famous “cucumber speech,” he understands. This guy seems to be a great therapist.
During her visit, Bonnie takes a dip in the crystal clear water behind the cabin. One can imagine that this place has been in the Yancy family for a long time, because this property would be a prime location for a developer who could build something and sell it for an insane profit. When you think about it, this is the understated message of Evil Monkey as a whole — developers like Evan Shook and the Striplings, who try to claim nature as their own in the name of profit. Scott Glenn — I know he’s Yancy’s father, but they never give him a real name, so I’ll just keep calling him Scott Glenn out of respect — talks about how the stunning bay in his backyard is the product of 33 million years of evolution. It’s a beautiful meditation on respecting the natural world and allowing things to grow at their own pace. Bonnie counters by telling him that it’s actually science: It’s geology. But when she dives into the water, she comes face to face with a cute manatee. What is a manatee but magic made manifest?
Bonnie thinks the sea pig is telling her to “try” Cody, so she does, but then she reads his novel, which she’s working on. It’s written in the voice of a young boy. Bonnie begins to realize that she’s done lasting damage to this boy and begins to consider her next steps. But her time to reflect is interrupted when the detective working her case finds her in the cabin and Bonnie escapes in Glenn’s hovercraft. Where she goes without money is a mystery, but somehow I think we’ll see her again soon.
Over in Andros, no one is running from the law. Neville wants to visit the Dragon Queen, but she is busy coddling Egg. This is a misstep by Neville, who is only checking his investment, but the Queen seems to have forgotten the curse she owes Neville. Maybe she is playing for him in the long run, but probably not. Egg spots Neville through the window and shoots him, hitting him well in the arm. Neville escapes, but is badly injured. Much to Egg’s chagrin, Neville seems to disappear from the scene. Egg returns to the Queen, but she wants more from him than just sex.
The events of this episode act as a turning point for the Dragon Queen, as she forges documents stating that John, the man she helped die in a previous episode, left her a very valuable piece of land that Eve and Nick are trying to buy. John’s widow doesn’t bat an eyelid when presented with the document, but his daughter makes a scene. Ya-Ya snaps at her, telling her that she won’t tolerate disrespect again, but Ya-Ya also seems to know that there’s something wrong with this gift that has suddenly appeared.
The Queen knows Eve and Nick won’t question the forged deed, so she has Egg arrange a meeting with them. The meeting between these two completely unequal pairs highlights both the income disparity and the racial disparity between them. Eve and Nick believe they have all the power, and treat both the Queen and Egg like servants who are there to do their bidding, but the Dragon Queen isn’t having it. Her power is secret and strong. Egg even senses it. He officially introduces her to his employers as the “Dragon Queen,” with deep awe in his voice. Nick doesn’t get this, however, and flippantly responds, “What the hell is a Dragon Queen?” Again, I might have an iota of sympathy for Nick if he didn’t treat literally everyone on Andros so terribly.
Nick quickly realizes that he is neither wanted nor needed in this interaction. Neither is Egg. Eve and the Queen negotiate the sale of the land, but they also size each other up. The Queen is undeterred by Eve’s cheerful, mean demeanor. She was the mean girl in school, not in a prom queen sense, but in the literal sense that if you get in her way, she’ll actually kill you. The Queen describes her power over the island in cryptic threats, telling them that they only thrive on Andros because she, in all her infinite power, allows them to. That’s a terrifying thing to hear; the idea of a total stranger holding your fate in his hands is pretty terrifying. Eve has no answer for that, and the Queen delivers a double whammy by telling her that she won’t let herself be disrespected. To her, disrespect is always personal. Eventually she stands up, towers over Eve, and says, “Ask around and find out what happens to people who screw me over.” We see that Eve is actually scared, perhaps for the first time in her life. In fact, she’s so scared that she kidnaps the Queen at the end of the episode. Okay, okay, we don’t really know if she is, but it has to be, right? Eve loves money, Tilly, baby carrots, and violence, in that order. Honestly, Nick is probably at the bottom of that list.
There are other reasons why Eve should be afraid. At the end of the episode, Claspers returns from Andros with a bunch of shitty drug smugglers. Rosa is there snooping around, and when everyone’s gone, she makes a shocking discovery on the plane. There’s the missing Neville, covered in blood and discovered by the right person at just the right time. Maybe the Dragon Queen hasn’t forgotten young Neville after all.
• Eve says the piece of land the Queen wants to sell her would be the perfect place for her boutique. Now we know what Eve did with her five grand spent at Asia’s boutique: research.
• The episode that made me laugh the most was when Rosa and Rogelio openly spoke Spanish in the middle of the Key West police station, as if it were a secret language because none of the other Bobos in the office have bothered to learn the language. Rosa insults Sonny in Spanish with a big grin on her face, to which he replies, “Gracias, señorita!”
• Although Rosa doesn’t appear much in this episode, she does have a few funny moments. At one point she says to Yancy, “You make me need coffee.” It’s such a compliment and insult at the same time and I love it and will use it in my real life from now on.
• Tom Petty cover monitoring: When Bonnie has her moment with the manatee, a cover of “Wildflowers” by Charlotte Lawrence plays during the interaction. Lawrence plays Caitlin on the show; she is the daughter of creator Bill Lawrence and is also a musician. It’s one of Petty’s best songs and Lawrence delivers a sweet, serviceable cover.
