This and a break-in and an epileptic dog send Michael increasingly frantic until he’s eventually making quite a scene trying to withdraw money from the bank and getting jostled around in a parade crowd while trying to call the blackmailer’s bluff. His thoughts are occupied in “Part Five” with a new development, which is the mysterious arrival of a cell phone that receives messages explaining the sender knows what Adam did, want a hefty ransom of $220,000 – a peculiarly specific sum – not to reveal it, and have the proof they need to make the accusation stick if that’s what it comes to.
Doing the right thing, and avenging the wrong thing, are more powerful than simply calling in favors.Īll of this happens without Michael’s knowledge. Desire, the street gang to whom Kofi belonged and for whose protection he pled guilty to a crime he didn’t commit, is willing to go to war for the deaths of Kofi and now his mother and three siblings. Lee and Nancy, both serious about their jobs and the reasons they do them, are doing a thorough enough job that Michael’s ill-thought-out efforts to sweep everything under the rug are only incriminating him. At first, the idea of a well-to-do white man using his influence to wipe away his son’s misdeeds was just the setup for a drama, but by now it’s a commentary on enduring values of morality and loyalty as well. There has always been a morbidly funny streak to how Michael enlisting the best possible people for various tasks – Nancy Costello to look into the “theft” of Robin’s car Lee Delamere to defend Kofi Jones in court after being picked up for it – has continuously backfired.