Critic’s Rating: 3 / 5.0
3
There has to be a point to the character of Cary Masterson.
Maybe he was meant to be Lucky’s foil. Or Priscilla’s vulnerability. Or simply the narrative catalyst.
But the main takeaway of Lucky Season 1 Episode 4, “Too Close To See It,” is that Cary is too dumb to live the life he was born into, but the women in his life prop him up until they can’t.
Cary Masterson
Giving credit where it’s due, Priscilla hasn’t done right by him as a mother or a role model. She kills his spiders for him but also envisions him stepping up and becoming a mob kingpin?
That’s some epic cognitive dissonance right there.
As for Cary’s natural instincts and intelligence, the less said, the better.
If we follow his “reasoning”, he stole the money from Lucky that John stole from Priscilla so that he could give it to his mother and save Lucky’s life.
But then he got mad that his mother was enjoying her life when he’d just betrayed Lucky for her. So he steals the money again? And converts almost all of it into BitCoin.
Fair enough, traveling with $10 million cash would be really inconvenient. Google AI tells me that, in $100 US bills, it would weigh just over 220 lbs.
Of course, he kept enough to buy the Bronco, lease the beach house, AND pick up a $500 bottle of Hibiki 100th Anniversary Limited Edition Japanese whisky. What the actual hell, Cary?
Lucky “Too Close To See It”
Cary accuses Lucky of being blind to her father’s dangerous faults because she’s too close to the situation. Fair assessment, honestly.
At the same time, she makes the same point about Cary and his mother.
Neither of them asked for the parents they got and both carry heavy legacies as a result of those parents.
Lucky, at least, learned to pivot with the situation. Cary only seems to know how to make things worse.
And to drive home the running theme here, Lucky (and maybe Priscilla) are too close to see that Cary’s really not the man (or son) they need.
Flashback City
While I’d never assume a show like Lucky would build its narrative on a bell curve, it’s fascinating the amount of time they spend on flashbacks on Lucky Episode 4, “Too Close To See It,” the exact middle episode of the series.
Out of a 40 minute runtime, it spends almost 15 minutes cumulatively over SIX separate flashback scenes.
Lucky’s interactions with Agent Rand bookend the lot, starting with Rand approaching her about working with the feds and ending with the fed takedown when Rand reveals she wasn’t able to keep her end of the bargain.
The other four flashbacks fill in Cary’s entire story, from his meeting with his mother through Vegas, his change of heart, and setting up his little hideaway in La Jolla.
It’s a lot of exposition, but considering he’s dead by the end of “Too Close To See It,” time was of the essence.
His death leaves Lucky alone and on the run again, with only the skills John drilled into her to keep her ahead of the feds and Priscilla’s people.
All roads lead back to John for Lucky. It probably helps that he’s always in her head, since Timothy Olyphant doesn’t even make an appearance as John Armstrong here.
Crash and Burn
It’s unclear if Lucky has a plan when she and Cary decide to run from Agent Rand’s team.
For Cary to hand her the keys, stating that she’s the better driver, makes me wonder if that’s another skill Priscilla coddled out of him, or if he’s just more comfortable as a passenger.
What is abundantly clear is that Cary does not have a head for strategy or an instinct for survival.
Yes, turning his back on his mother is a choice — although he took his sweet time deciding to follow Lucky — but it wasn’t the smart one.
It’s Lucky who figured out how to lose the feds. She finds them new wheels. And she senses that Agent Rand will be expecting them to head for the border.
What she can’t possibly predict is that Cary will start shooting at the police cars behind them, because what idiot doesn’t realize they’ll start shooting back? A Cary-shaped idiot. That’s right.
So how did these two end up in love and married? That’s the flashback I need. Did they meet because their parents were figuratively (and probably literally) in bed together?
Were they drawn together by recognizing their own trauma in each other? Did they bond over the idea of a mundane, law-abiding life?
Because from what we’ve seen, Cary is just as bad for Lucky as her father is. All his protestations of love and “explanations” are 100% the BS she calls them out as.
But, unlike John Armstrong, Cary doesn’t have the savvy or charm to work a situation. He shoots his way out. In a world of blunt instruments, Cary is the bluntest.
Has Her Luck Run Out?
With Cary dead and probably suffering some serious injuries herself from the car crash, Lucky’s options are slim.
The money is locked behind the seed phrase Cary created for his BitCoin account. He’s dead. B’bye, seed phrase.
Priscilla, Whittaker, Agent Rand, and her own father still want the money. At this point, I think Lucky might be ready to give up.
What could possibly keep her going? Seriously, Fanatics, if you were her, what would be the point in surviving all of this? Cary’s dead. Dad’s still in jail. The money’s gone.
Hit our comments with your thoughts and theories!
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