SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 9. It also contains mention of suicide.

Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 9 is the most important episode of the season. The show has to prove that the jaw-dropping choice at the end of Episode 8 was the right call, plus it has to set the stage for the season finale, and both those goals have to be accomplished in less than an hour. But in the hands of co-creator Hugh Dillon, “Teeth and Tissue” is also the best episode of Season 4.

Rather than wallow in the shock from Tracy McLusky’s death, the plot starts by confirming what audiences have suspected for a while now: Robert Sawyer is dead, and Ian was successful in making it look like a suicide. Ian and Mike McLusky are among those watching Robert’s body being removed from his home, with Ian commenting that Robert will get “a cop’s funeral.” It’s a moment that the audience will find audacious as they know the real story, and it sets the tone for everything that comes afterward.

This does, however, answer the ongoing question of what Mayor of Kingstown was going to do with its Evelyn Foley problem: since Robert is dead, Evelyn can’t prosecute a dead man. Mike says as much to her, and so Episode 9 is easily able to close that chapter of canon and move on to more pressing matters. Namely, Mike still has to deliver Frank Moses to Evelyn in order to get his brother Kyle out of Anchor Bay. The bulk of the episode is focused on Frank, which is exceptionally efficient storytelling; trying to cram the Frank story and the Callahan story into the finale would short-change both. And because of Tracy’s death, the Callahan story deserves to be the one at the end. It’s the one that fans are more emotionally invested in.

What this enables is Lennie James to take center stage as Frank Moses for the last time. This is Frank’s episode in a sense, because audiences get the clearest look they’ve ever had at who he is emotionally, not just as a crime boss. Mike’s plan, spelled out earlier in Season 4, gets tied up beautifully: since Lamar betrayed Bunny, he serves up Lamar to Frank, who is then arrested for Lamar’s murder. What Dillon and James do very well together is take a scene that has been done so many times before and so many times badly—the villain delivering an angry monologue to the person he’s about to kill—and make it magnetic.

On the page, Frank rhapsodizing about LJ and about Kingstown makes sense because Frank is in a spiral, which he deservedly blames on Kingstown. (He has a point that this city messes with people.) In performance, James is able to dig out all the anger and frustration that the monologue is trying to convey. It doesn’t feel like a speech; it feels like a collapse. It is absolutely perfect that this is his downfall, and it’s so much more impactful than any of the other villain exits because it is a go-for-broke moment on both sides of the camera.

The good/bad news (good for fans, bad for characters) is that Frank’s arc ends with him alive in a jail cell. This means James could potentially resurface on Mayor of Kingstown, which is obviously a huge talent boost and more likely on a series that’s already proven it likes to bring back its bad guys. How exactly that would work plot-wise is a problem for a potential Season 5; at least for right now, “Teeth and Tissue” gives Frank a clear ending. Audiences can now move on knowing that he has been beaten.

But the biggest accomplishment in this episode is how Dillon reveals to audiences what the plan was all along. The reintroduction of Will Breen seemed to be a needless annoyance at first, but “Teeth and Tissue” is the hour that explains why he had to come back—in the worst way. An angry and humiliated Breen, at the end of his rope, murders most of the prisoners in Ad Seg before being shot himself by Cindy Stephens. It is an absolutely disturbing sequence to watch, yet one that has so many notable moments even through the fear it engenders, most importantly the look on Taylor Handley’s face when Breen has his gun pointed at Kyle. It’s a saddening window into Kyle’s mind. And this story could not have been told with any other character, because the viewers know the context that has pushed Breen to his breaking point.

Furthermore, this sequence of events opens up other characters as well. Cindy now has an individual arc that has nothing to do with her budding relationship with Mike. Nina Hobbs has even more to carry on her shoulders, as Episode 9 also reveals the guilt she feels, continuing to chip away at her original persona. Audiences see her having to do the seemingly unthinkable. The montage that follows, set to The Doors’ “End of the Night,” is the moment Hugh Dillon singled out in our interview with good reason. Montages so often just feel like writers are using them as shortcuts, but this one adds to the comprehension of this story. The visual image of Mike pulling up at Anchor Bay to see all of the body bags, and then the contrast of Kyle walking free, is brilliant and the song enhances it. Dillon has written an episode in which every single line of dialogue, every single shot feels like it has a purpose. Not a moment is wasted. And those kinds of tightly written episodes don’t happen often.

Lastly, but certainly not least, he throws in an unexpectedly violent cliffhanger. Kyle and Mike arrive at the diner to meet Ian and Stevie, only for the place to come under fire. Cliffhangers going into season finales are not uncommon—but this one is genuinely startling. It happens out of the blue, and what happens further drives home the theme of Season 4. Everything that represented Kingstown is getting torn apart. So this isn’t just a cliffhanger for dramatic effect; like so much else in this season, there’s another level to it. “Teeth and Tissue” has a lot to accomplish, and it hits every single one of its targets.

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.