Eric – Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

In Eric Episode 4, Lennie tells Vincent that Jerry fired him, although they still want Eric. After an argument, Vincent storms out.

Cassie goes to see Cecile, needing someone to talk to. She tells her not to come to her for comfort, so the women share their anger instead. Cecile says it’s what she does with her anger that matters.

Watching more tapes, Michael notices a sanitation worker, Misha, picking up Edgar’s bloody T-shirt from behind the dumpster and stuffing it in his pocket. Right before, he dropped off something in a plastic bag.

Michael later asks Misha what he was doing on the tape. Misha doesn’t answer forthrightly, and it looks like he’s scared of his supervisor. When Michael asks what Misha dropped off by the dumpster, his supervisor insists it was clean clothes for other workers to pick up.

Someone bursts in on Yuusuf and Eric while looking for Raya, who owes him money. When he leaves, Yuusuf asks Edgar if he followed him through the grill. He did, and now Yuusuf says he’s walked into hell. He insists the kid stay put, as it’s dangerous to leave his room.

Later, Vincent meets with Jerry at a restaurant and loudly rebukes him for his decision to fire him. His dad, at the same restaurant, forces him out and talks to him about getting into rehab, but Vincent doesn’t want to hear anything he has to say.

He then confronts Cassie about calling the police on him, but she doesn’t care. She’s realized her anger toward him and wants him to move out. He then learns about Sebastian, who has met Edgar a couple of times, and he theorizes that he’s the one who kidnapped him. Cassie then tells him she’s pregnant with Sebastian’s child. With that, Vincent leaves and proceeds to sink deeper into alcoholism.

TJ stops Raya on the street, asking her for money. It seems she’s in debt with several people. She says she knows he likes them young, and she’s got something that will interest him.

Tina tells Michael she’s arranged a meeting between him and Dana. She also implies that she knows he’s gay, but will keep his secret. Then she gives him the Sierra files, which have Lennie on file for promoting prostitution of a minor, but the charges were dismissed.

In a meeting with Di Bari and Robert Anderson, Costello says City Hall will be donating to the Good Day Sunshine charity to boost their image. Di Bari then gets a call from Alexander in sanitation that shipments of drugs have come in, but cops have been asking questions. Di Bari tells him to shut it down.

Later, Alexander and other sanitation workers ask Misha along for a beer. They beat him up outside the bar in an effort to silence him.

George has a chat with Vincent, telling him he used to see him race with Edgar often and never saw him let his son win. When Vincent goes to see Edgar’s drawings in the boiler room, he notices that the drawings make a map of their area, and he starts recreating it in his notebook.

Michael speaks to Lennie about the Sierra Nightclub, and his questioning makes him distraught. He asks if he recognizes Marlon, begging for just one name in connection, so Lennie tells him Ricardo is down by the basketball courts most mornings.

He then meets with Dana Nokes, who thinks Nokes was relieved that Kennedy was dead. After Kennedy’s death, his new car had a dent in the bumper and scuffed paint.

Leaving Dana, Michael finds Vincent following his map, and he shares his findings with the detective, who thinks he’s crazy. Eventually, Vincent’s search leads him to the subway. He sees someone disappear but isn’t sure where they went from there.

At work, Michael notices his tapes are gone. Luckily, Tina saved them. Cripps had asked for them, and Tina covered for him, saying they already went to archives. Michael will now need to keep them at home.

Now, Michael notices a note left for him, calling him the f-slur. He then gets a call, which leads him to the hospital. He asks for William, but it turns out he’s dead.

Back in the tunnels, Yuusuf asks Edgar why he came down here. Edgar says he liked Yuusuf’s graffiti tags, so he followed him down here.

Meanwhile, Raya once again promises to get TJ the kid, then climbs down under a grate in front of The Lux.

The Episode Review

Poor Michael! I’ve really been enjoying the detective’s characterization. So far, he’s the most fleshed-out character with the most intriguing life–working for a corrupt system while dealing with all these real issues the NYPD couldn’t care less about.

Vincent, however, suffers from a lack of strong characterization. I think I would enjoy the limited series and Vincent’s character a lot more if it integrated Eric and Good Morning Sunshine more seamlessly into its overarching narrative. As it is, the whole puppet schtick feels happenstance. Vincent could have had any other profession and the story still would have worked out somehow.