When we last saw Mickey (Stanley Morgan) on The Westies, he wasn’t doing too hot, captured by the Italian mafia and they’re fairly insistent on finding out what happened to Gambino soldier Vinnie Zaccaro (Michael Rispoli). Given that Jimmy (Tom Brittney) just gave his skull a few air holes in the previous episode, Mickey opts to keep quiet. They knock him unconscious with a bottle and drag him away. Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Westies Episode 3, The Starship.
Despite the brutal torture via baseball bat, Mickey refuses to reveal anything. Knowing that John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headley) and the Italian gang are probably responsible for Mickey’s sudden disappearance, the boys want to take action. Eamon Sweeney (J.K. Simmons) fears Gotti will get to Mickey before they can negotiate his release, while Jimmy insists Mickey has survived worse and won’t crack under pressure.
According to Stanley Morgan, Mickey’s brand of loyalty and his ability to survive come at a steep personal cost. The young Vietnam vet carries deep psychological scars from the war, and his PTSD and mental instability often make him a liability for the Westies. Chatting with TV Insider, Morgan explains, “I think for sure it comes with a cost, being able to survive through all of those things. I don’t think it’s something like it was being carried lightly. I don’t think it was easy to exist through all those different periods of time.”
Those struggles are also why Mickey’s relationship with Jimmy is so important. More than just fellow gang members, the two rely on one another like brothers, with years of shared history. According to Morgan, that’s what makes their partnership work so well.
“It’s the thing about family, right? Not that they’re family and blood, but I think they’re chosen family, and I think that they’ve been with each other their entire lives, and they have, and I actually think I might be biased, but I think they’re a great pair together,” said Morgan. “I think that they have different strengths that work for each other in different ways, and I think Jimmy is so smart, and he can see things in the future, but I think Mickey has an instinct, and he has a gut feeling, and he’s loyal to the end.”
“I think Mickey would die for the people that he loves,” explains Morgan. “It’s brotherhood, it’s friendship, they’ll be willing to do anything for each other.”
Realizing they have little leverage, Sweeney turns to Big Paul Castellano (Ron Lea), arguing that Mickey has nothing to do with Vinnie’s disappearance and that killing him would only jeopardize the Javits Center operation. Big Paul agrees to intervene, but only if the Westies eliminate the Colombian cocaine operation running out of the Starship nightclub. That results in a night out for the Westies, where they scope out the operation before hitting it hard.
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After Jimmy and the gang successfully destroy the drug ring with the help of a missile launcher compliments of Bridget (Sarah Bolger), Gotti is forced to release Mickey.
Badly battered but still alive, Mickey returns home, where Erin (Hilary McCormack) tends to his wounds. A local woman with a soft spot for Mickey, she was once Vinnie’s favorite sex worker.
Sweeney and the Gotti boys
Sweeney meets with Big Paul and insists Mickey had nothing to do with Zaccaro’s disappearance. Paul agrees to force Gotti to release Mickey, but only if the Westies eliminate the Colombian cocaine operation running out of the Starship nightclub and hand him a share of the drug business. Later, Gotti confronts Big Paul, arguing the story surrounding Zaccaro doesn’t add up and claiming the Irish are involved. Paul, however, refuses to jeopardize his criminal empire over the cocaine trade, a bit of conflict between him and Gotti.
Love is a battlefield
Bridget, an Irish republican activist and former rebel who escaped prison after the Troubles, finds herself in a bit of a quandary when her former boyfriend Brendan Cahill (Allen Leech) asks her to help smuggle a cache of weapons into the city.
Bridget ultimately agrees to help the cause, but decides to use the weapons to help Jimmy and the Westies by leading them to Brendan’s hidden stockpile of rocket launchers, which they use in a deadly assault on a Colombian drug operation to secure Mickey’s release from the Italians. Afterward, a not-so-happy Brendan realizes the weapons have been used, leaving Bridget caught between her political convictions and her loyalty to Jimmy.
FBIs, they’re watching you…
As the FBI investigates the murdered state trooper, Birdie grows suspicious after Vinnie’s driver’s license and fingerprints conveniently turn up at the crime scene (planted by the Westies, of course). She questions why one of Gotti’s top men would leave such obvious evidence, much less murder a trooper, and pressures Keenan to produce evidence against Sweeney and the Westies. Meanwhile, Keenan privately warns Sweeney that no one believes Zaccaro killed the trooper and fears the truth will eventually come out.
But funny enough, when he wants to be, Keenan is actually a pretty damn good cop. Keenan identifies the real killer of the state trooper as Pat Murphy (Jeremy Walmsley) and tells Sweeney that if a schmo like him can figure it out, then anyone can.
In exchange for taking care of the problem himself, Keenan asks Sweeney to leave his son Danny (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong) alone. Sweeney agrees, and Keenan ambushes Pat in an alley outside the bar, killing him before he can expose the Westies.
The Westies, Sundays, 9/8c, MGM+