SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 4.

Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 4 is a reminder of how brilliant Jeremy Renner is in the title role. It’s also one of those episodes that’s going to look much bigger in the rear view mirror. Paramount+ viewers will still be talking about this one by the end of the season, maybe into a potential Season 5.

“Sins of Omission” is really about putting the screws to Mike, even as it reveals major plot pieces both to him and the audience. The thread that runs through the entire hour is Mike’s emotional journey. Like most of Taylor Sheridan’s shows, Mayor of Kingstown is centered on one A-list star—but one of the things that makes Kingstown different is how it leans into that as an advantage. The crux of this show is that the Mayor is the glue who holds Kingstown together, like it or not.

That’s tested to the extreme yet again in Episode 4. Mike gets exactly one good moment right at the top—he and Cindy have spent the night together after Carney’s sendoff—and then it’s sharply downhill from there. But then he’s trying to keep Bunny Washington and Frank Moses from starting another war, someone breaks into his brother’s home, Ian Ferguson nearly kills Evelyn Foley, and Cindy tells Mike that Kyle’s prison buddy is Merle Callahan. The final scene, of Mike alone in his office with his head on his desk, sums up just how defeated he is. And yet he’s going to get up and go again, because what choice does he have?

Renner is spot-on throughout, doing the opposite of what he did in Episode 2. Mike is amped-up at moments, most notably when he thinks Robert Sawyer targeted Evelyn (which makes this scene even more messy in retrospect), but he’s also quiet when it comes to his own struggles. Despite telling Evelyn she was dead to him, Mike still sits by her bedside in the hospital, and Renner communicates so much pain and exhaustion simply in his expression. Mike may say he’s fine, but he needs a lot more than a moment.

The big shocker is that Ian drops the brick off the overpass that hits Evelyn’s car and causes her accident. “Sins of Omission” reveals that to the audience, but keeps it a secret from everyone but Stevie, whom Ian confesses to. The shock isn’t that Ian did it—there’s his questionable morality again—but knowing how huge the fallout will be. Ian flat-out denies it to Mike’s face, even pointing out that he grew up with Evelyn as he does so. How destroyed will Mike’s relationship with Ian be when he finds out the truth? And if Ian thought Evelyn was on his case before, she’s definitely not letting him go if she learns this. It’s actually a bit of a head-scratcher that Ian even thought to scare Evelyn, since she’s proven that she doesn’t scare easily. This is the kind of thing that would (and does) galvanize her, not intimidate her.

Mike also learns from Kevin Jackson about how the Colombians are working with Torres inside the prison, and from Cindy about Callahan (though if he hadn’t had such an understandably visceral reaction, he would’ve learned even more; it seems he didn’t hear her say that she saw Hobbs taking to Callahan). Mayor of Kingstown is snapping pieces together efficiently for both characters and viewers, since Season 4 is already approaching its halfway point. The time for plot teases is largely over. It’s the latter that reverberates most for two reasons: fans see Hobbs talking to Callahan about their “mutual friend,” so she clearly is aware of his rapport with Kyle. And of course, Mike knows twice over just how terrible Callahan can be. Actor Richard Brake has taken the creepy villain baton from Aiden Gillen easily.

And as if that’s not enough, there’s another prison mayhem scene as Bunny has Raphael mount an attack on Colombian leader Roberto Cruz in the Anchor Bay yard. Cruz survives, but it’s a chaotic sequence that is beautifully shot by actor-director Leslie Hope (24, Suits). Mike can’t fix all of this. Any way he slices it, someone’s going to pay the price, and that’s the inherent message of the episode. He can’t stand that as it’s failure on his part. The audience cringes at it because they know that failure in Mayor of Kingstown normally means someone dies.

The show’s writers have made clear with Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 4 what makes this season different. Most of the seasons have the same basic starting point of “outside group forces its way into the city and threatens it.” It’s what the plot does from that point that works or doesn’t. Season 4 has stripped Mike of most of his protections, and that’s likely about to include Ian. “Sins of Omission” shows audiences that Mike may finally have met his match not in one person, but in the whole freaking thing. And in doing so, it’s also reminded them that no one but Jeremy Renner could play this role.

Mayor of Kingstown streams Sundays on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.