Girl Power
Episode 2 of Hightown Season 2 begins with a surreal vision of Junior and Jackie together on a boat. It’s a beautiful sunset; a tranquil backdrop over the rocky emotions befalling them. Of course this is a dream, with Jackie bolting upright and preparing for the day ahead. The community is rocked by the triple ODs, with Alan speaking up at the school regarding the opioid crisis gripping Cape Cod. He tells the kids to say no to drugs, but he hits a brick wall when the kids argue back and question his authority – and just what the police are doing to stop this. Right now, that’s not very much. Off the back of this, Jackie and Leslie discuss the morning’s events in the locker room. Jackie is in no mood for gossiping and is itching to get to work. With the lieutenant breathing down his neck, he’s under pressure to get this solved. Renee is late for her period and still grappling with the prospect of being pregnant. And that is made even worse by Jorge’s continued antagonizing. At the club, Renee is approached by a hopeful young woman called Donna, who wants a job at Xander’s. Despite Renee telling it to her straight, Donna remains adamant that she wants to work there. Alan visits Osito in prison, who’s finally ready to speak. Kissel being MIA isn’t a coincidence – he’s actually dead. He’s in the park and Osito knows that Junior killed him. The exact location though? That’s still unknown. Jackie and Leslie meanwhile enlist the help of an addict to score some drugs. They want to find out exactly how far up the ladder this goes, and that involves going after a dealer called Doug. When the junkie fails to show after some time, Leslie and Jackie head up alone and find Doug themselves. Their addict has left with the drugs and an unfortunate familiar face sees their cover blown. So naturally, Jackie and Leslie put some cuffs on him after he boasts about selling the Great White drugs. In order to get Doug to open up, Jackie and Leslie bring up the three kids and decide to use a manslaughter case against him. This loosens his lips, as Doug admits that a guy called Colin Connor was his dealer. They don’t get much further though, given Doug asks for a lawyer, but Alan does suss out that this whole incident is in connection to Jorge and Frankie, especially when Doug’s face grows white upon seeing pictures of Jorge and Frankie. Given how extreme this case is getting, Alan decides to organize his search in Nicholson Park, determined to see if Osito’s words hold weight. Over at Xander’s things continue to escalate too. Charmaine shows up ready to talk business. Renee, Frankie and Jorge are all there too, and prepare to strike a partnership. Renee is the one who sweetens the deal, managing to bribe her with a “first class” plane ride. In the wake of this, Frankie learns that the dealer responsible for selling to those three kids is called Gumdrop. That evening, Ray ends up inviting his booty call, Gina, over after changing his mind about messaging Renee. After taking a sip of alcohol together, we cut forward to the morning after where Ray’s truck is parked outside Renee’s, bushes decorating the front of his car, and a handgun in front of the handbrake. In prison, Osito finds a dead rat in his bed. It’s a clear message that the other inmate are. As he rings Jackie to let her know she wakes up, next to Leslie.
The Episode Review
Hightown slows down slightly this week, with a much more methodical dose of drama. Seeing Jorge and Renee continue to butt heads is a nice way of showing discontent in Frankie’s camp, while the Great White story works well to further the drug plot and add some much-needed tension to Cape Cod’s growing opioid crisis. While there are still parts of this show that don’t quite work – such as Ray’s inclusion in this tale thus far – on the whole the series has done a pretty good job of upping the stakes for everyone else. Whether Jackie and Leslie’s recent team-up will pay off or not remains to be seen but with a slower chapter this time around, it seems like we’re gearing up for something much bigger to come later on down the line.