The Westies Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Favors and Funerals

The Westies is doing its best to keep us on our toes, and we’re not the only ones.

Everyone is juggling personal agendas while trying to do what’s best for their organizations, and that’s not a winning combination in the long run.

Let’s see what’s going on in Hell’s Kitchen this time out!

Watching Pat Murphy’s funeral, my first thought was that someone paid a hefty price for that prime space of graveyard real estate.

He was given a spot that even the most wealthy struggle to find. Did Sweeney pay for it out of a sense of guilt? I’m surprised nobody else thought about it. 

Officer Glenn’s son Danny is running around squawking about it, which will eventually get back to the Westies, and they’ll look at Sweeney.

They did ask if there was word about who killed him, and it seemed a bit personal and brutal for the Puerto Ricans to have done it. Will they eventually figure it out? Jimmy and Mickey are always thinking about the possibilities now.

Pat didn’t want to marry his girlfriend who was carrying his child. That says a lot about who he was and why he was expendable. They’re Catholics, for God’s sake. Marrying their girls when they get them in trouble seems like part of the package.

So when Sweeney said Pat Murphy was part of what makes the neighborhood thrive, I wasn’t feeling it. Sure, they’re sad and lost a friend, but was Pat a stand-up guy? No. 

In addition to turning his back on his pregnant lady, he got everyone in trouble by killing a cop. He could have made wiser decisions.

But while it makes sense why Sweeney might not care about his death, the same won’t be said for Jimmy and the guys.

We need an aside to talk about how much I love the accent work being done by these actors. It’s so incredible. J.K. Simmons is right there in Hells Kitchen as far as I’m concerned. To anyone who thinks accents don’t matter (I’m looking at you, Star City), you couldn’t be more wrong.

The other wrench in the Westies future is Jimmy’s desire to move toward drugs. It’s liable to tear the organization, such that it is, apart at the seams.

And Sweeney is right. Getting into the drug trade is a move you don’t make lightly, and if you have guys like the Westies running the business, it’s better you don’t do it at all. They’re already half crazy and take insane chances. Just what they don’t need is to start sampling an over-abundant product.

It would also put them in the crosshairs with the Italians, where things are already touch-and-go. The Italians run drugs; the Irish let them. 

The only thing I see as a possibility if Jimmy is adamant is that he joins forces with the Italians, turning his back on Sweeney. If he discovers Sweeney knew about Pat’s death, it could be the push he needs to take his guys elsewhere.

But damn, with the FBI already investigating the Westies, that would be a whole other barrel of monkeys that would threaten every aspect of the business. 

Glenn already shows how damn hard it is to please everyone all the time and keep any modicum of self-governance. He’s working with too many people and trying to get involved with his son. It’s a lot.

And yet, Sweeney didn’t just burn the stuff like he told Jimmy he would do. Even he can’t sit on six kilos of coke and not attempt to make a little cash off of it. But he trusts his right-hand man, Eddie, with the job, and not the “kids,” as he called him.

That’s both wise and foolish, and before the end of The Westies Season 1 Episode 4, we knew it was foolish. 

The guy he trusted to take the product off his hands went right to John Gotti, and Gotti put a hit on Sweeney.

Sweeney keeps making the wrong decisions, which makes me wonder how he took control in the first place. His read on Glenn is so poor that he threatened to kill his son if he continued visiting Hell’s Kitchen.

Does Sweeney think he’s the only dangerous man in the city or something? I’m beginning to wonder if Sweeney will make it out of The Westies Season 1 intact.

Jimmy is sticking up for Sweeney and his decisions, carrying on business as usual, but Mickey isn’t as certain, and he’s wound so tight that I worry what his next move might be.

Mickey was quite sore to find out that one of the businesses on their route was selling dog tags. They mean something, and the idea of just anybody imprinting their name on them set him off, and rightly so.

But all of these little things just keep adding up, and it feels like the temperature is rising to the boiling point, slowly but surely.

Hey, at least he’s got Erin to take the edge off. I’ll never understand how someone who is sleeping on someone’s couch could possibly have sex there. And yet, I had a friend who did just that, God bless her. Youth is clearly for the young. 

Things started looking worse for Sweeney when the old fella they were shaking down squealed about the $100 grand Sweeney paid for his award.

What’s weird is that someone had mentioned at the beginning of “Favors and Funerals” that Sweeney had paid for the award recognition. He didn’t have the coke until much later. So where did he get the initial $100k? Or did I just misunderstand?

Did anyone else catch that? I want to hear from you!

And as if things weren’t spiraling for the Westies already, Bridget discovered the true purpose of the rocket launcher she let them use: Brendan planned on using it to kill the general responsible for killing her parents.

I don’t know what Brendan’s plan is to take out the guy without the weapon, but I don’t blame Bridget one bit for being on board to help or to keep it from Jimmy. Maybe she shouldn’t have even told him she was going to be involved. 

Jimmy’s real concern was that Bridget was putting herself in danger. His second concern was likely that he wouldn’t be able to help if she needed it, even if he didn’t admit that. Knowing she’s taking a chance with her life for a cause she believes in is one thing, but being in the dark almost makes it harder.

Yet they trust each other. That much is clear. And if they have that trust, there is real love underneath, and that’s rare.

I love how at the end of each episode it feels like they’ve happily filled the blender with enough ingredients to fire up the blender and turn it on — with the lid off.

There is so much going on, and the resulting chaos spills everywhere.

It’s hard to root for Bridget knowing she blew up the tube in London. Brendan calls her a hero, but she’s a terrorist who put innocent lives at risk, likely taking some of them out in the process. You don’t flee your country and change your name because you’re the salt of the earth.

While she was swearing a loyalty oath to her new cause, Glenn was having Danny arrested to get him out of the line of fire. It’s a hard decision, but not necessarily the wrong one, either.

And Sweeney was accepting his award, giving yet another speech about the neighborhood and the Irish. 

The Italians were on the way, just two guys with a car and a gun. As they walked up to Sweeney in a dimly lit alley, it was Jimmy who put them down, saving Sweeney’s life. Mickey was nowhere to be seen, and I wonder if he had any idea what Sweeney was planning.

He seemed eager to let Sweeney feel the consequences of his actions, but Sweeney wasn’t willing to let the man who took him in after his mother was murdered make his exit just yet.

What I can’t figure out is how Brendan’s plans with Bridget will cross what Sweeney is doing. Certainly, it will come down to the trust between Jimmy and Bridget. Will they be the downfall? Will Mickey?

It’s hard to tell what’s next, but the loyalties keep shifting — fracturing and rebuilding again. It’s enough to make your head spin. 

Which way do you think the wind is blowing? Share your thoughts in the comments below!