A sudden tragedy unsettles the Rayburn clan. While searching for evidence in his case, John finds something disturbing from the family's past.
"Part 5" features the sudden and surprising death of family patriarch Robert Rayburn in its first few minutes. It's a move that is simultaneously surprising and expected. Sam Shepard has been phenomenal in the role. And yet, there was so much talk about wills and estate planning and the other siblings worrying about the future that his death simply had to occur - otherwise it would have all been meaningless. This episode is a turning point for the season because it shifts the focus of the family dealing with Danny's return to dealing with Robert's death. The two plot points are connected, but this latest twist offers a more outward emotional resonance as well.So far, this family has kept their dark secrets buried deep, deep down. They live in this beautiful community. Tragedy has effected all of them. They lost Sarah in a tragic drowning. They are all trying to keep up appearances and keep moving forward with their lives. And yet, the memories of the past are slipping back into their minds. Robert's death brings these issues back to the forefront of their thoughts. None of them have really properly dealt with the tragedy in their past and that makes them ill-equipped to handle the tragedy of the present.
With all that being said though, Robert's death adds much more emotional weight to the previous episode than it does to this one. Robert and his three sons going out for a drive in the old truck that Danny and Kevin fixed has a new meaning with the knowledge that it was the last time they were together. Sally not wanting to talk about Robert's will basically foreshadowed this event but it has more importance now too. In his last days, all Meg cared about was the work and making sure her mistake didn't alter his wishes for the future without him in it. All of that stuff does factor into this episode as the Rayburn family has to deal with his sudden death. But a lot of this episode also just delivers exposition about who Robert really was as a person and the details of the shared family past.
Sally's story about why Robert never finished high school and left home was fantastic from an acting perspective. Sissy Spacek and Kyle Chandler did a wonderful job of bringing weight to the events of this story. And yet, it was pure exposition planted in this episode for the audience to get a better understand of who Robert was. However, the audience already has a good understanding of who he was as a character. Through the storytelling, we've seen him accomplish his dreams of running this business while also being extremely hard on his four children. That has been a part of this show for the first five episode. So, why then did we need this story? To justify more of what he has done to his children? To blame it on a cycle of parental abuse? I don't know. It's all so weird and doesn't add up in a compelling way that enriches the character more now that he is dead.
His death brings this community together because he helped shaped what it is today. According to John's eulogy, Robert made everything about this little world of tourism and family. It was his vision. He did all of this but to the detriment of his own family. He had a vision for what all of their lives should be like and he was abusive if they didn't follow along his plan. Sarah's death kept him fixated on the past. Several people have stated that they had a special connection. The exact details of that connection are still being shrouded in mystery. How special was it? How has the death of one child shaped the dynamics with the rest of his four children for the past 30 years?
Answers are coming. They're just coming really slowly. The pacing of Bloodline so far hasn't really been a problem for me - until this episode. Everything just seemed to be happening much slower and without as much weight or importance as the preceding episodes. Robert and Danny's last conversation holds no repercussions because Robert died and Danny can stay in town. That doesn't take away from how fantastic that moment was in the previous episode. It just alters the perspective a little bit. Robert's death has also forced Kevin and Meg to see their relationships differently. And yet, those stories don't feel that natural because the audience simply has no idea who Belle and Marco are as characters. What are their desires and needs? The show is more committed to Marco because he's also John's partner at work. He is allowed to have a life outside of Meg while Belle and Diane are simply Kevin and John's wives and nothing more than that. Kevin and Belle are having problems. Kevin gets to be a troublemaker for a little bit because he's drunk and then he goes crawling back to Belle. It's a story that doesn't work at all because the audience has no personal connection to the two of them as a couple. We know them simply as a plot point.
And then, there is the prolonged mystery of what happened amongst Danny, John and Robert in the past. Lenny Potts (Frank Hoyt Taylor), an old Navy friend of Robert's and a former detective from the area, returns for Robert's funeral but his presence has Sally, Danny and John noticeably on edge. Sally avoids him by going to talk to Eric and Chelsea - the last two people I would expect her to engage with in conversation. Lenny is connected to the pain of the past and his return uproots the new "normalcy" in the Rayburn lives. And yet, it is all just more vague teasing throughout this episode. Lenny proclaims he knows the truth about what happened to Danny on the day he "got hit by a car" and is upset he didn't do more about it. That pulls John into the mystery as well because being questioned about that accident is still weighing down on him. It is literally still haunting him. He sees himself answering the detective's questions in the mind of his parent's dining room. It's a break from reality that lingers for a second after Sally enters the scene. It holds a weight when so much of the episode around it doesn't. Something happened amongst these people and the show feels comfortable keeping it from the audience at this point in its life. That is frustrating. The show can only tease the audience for so long before it starts becoming a major problem. The acting on the show can continue to be outstanding but actual and honest reveals have to start happening as well.
Some more thoughts:
- "Part 5" was written by Jonathan Glatzer and directed by Jean de Segonzac.
- Lenny also gives John some help with his new case. He mentions the movements of the currents could help him find more of the bodies from the boat explosion - which seems like a pretty easy deduction to make. John isn't really committed to the case and neither is the show which just makes it more and more odd the more into the season we go.
- Danny and Chelsea finally do sleep together but he also doesn't want her to be the person who sticks around for him. That's not what he wants their relationship to be - even though he's trying to commit to staying in town.
- Of course, Danny also lies about what his last conversation with Robert was. They don't need to know the truth that Robert wanted Danny gone.
- A lot of this episode is emotionally hollow but the moment in which Sally goes to the bathroom and spots Robert's toothbrush and razor was so simple that it really worked.
- Only doing five episodes might seem like a waste of casting Sam Shepard in the role, but he got a ton of great mileage out of the character for the limited amount of time he spent on the screen. I would place him in any kind of Emmy conversation. The question, however, is does he go for supporting or guest actor? He was listed in the main credits as a regular but he only appeared in less than half the season. So, he would qualify for both - unless, of course, he continues to make brief appearances throughout the season. That is also a possibility for this show.
