“You see, Johnny, this is why no one will do business with you. You overreach.” – Barry
The more I watch Lights Out, the less I’m bothered by the things I found annoying in the first couple of episodes. The performances and accents aren’t nearly as distracting as they were initially and I find myself getting into the show more each week. Now, don’t think I’ve gotten soft, I haven’t. I’m still not sold on Lights Out and I have major concerns about its potential beyond this first season. But slowly and surely, the show is growing on me.
The premise of Lights Out is centered around the fact that Lights (Holt McCallany) is broke. And because he is broke he has to do a bunch of crazy things to maintain his family’s lifestyle. The problem with this is with a snap of his fingers, Lights could be rich again. All of his problems would be solved if he just fought Death Row (Billy Brown) again. The reason why he doesn’t do that is two-fold (or at least I thought it was up until “Bolo Punch”); his wife doesn’t want him to and he is worried about exacerbating his dementia. But his logic makes no sense. His wife is much more likely to forgive him for stepping in the ring and earning a living the honest way than she would be if she found out about all the violent, illegal things he has been doing to make ends meet.
In “Bolo Punch” (which is a boxing term meaning ‘lucky punch’), Lights is forced to come clean to Theresa (Catherine McCormack) about their financial trouble after her credit cards are declined. “It’s gone, Theresa. The money’s gone. All of it,” he tells her solemnly. At first, she’s devastated, then she get practical. Sort of. She suggests they sell the house, the gym, the jewelry, take the kids out of private school and move in with her sister. All of which are good ideas, but none are as good as GETTING BACK IN THE RING ONE MORE TIME! There is no chance she thinks dropping out of medical school, abandoning her career and uprooting her children are worth keeping Lights out of the ring. As a (future) doctor, she has to realize that the chances of one last fight killing or permanently damaging her husband are extremely slim.
Fighting Reynolds again is the answer to all of their problems. Lights knows that. Theresa known that. I know that. You know that. The writers know that. The problem is as soon as Lights gets his rematch, the story is over. The rematch will happen eventually, and the question is will the inevitable stalling and circling around that the writers are going to manufacture be interesting enough to keep our attention in the mean time? I’m pretty sure that the Lights/Death Row fight is going to happen this season — probably in the penultimate episode — so where does the show go from there? What is Season Two about?
Questions about the future aside, “Bolo Punch” is a pretty damn good episode. It starts with Omar (Pedro Pascal) barging into the gym brandishing a pistol, demanding his cut from the Harris fight. He hasn’t been paid because Barry is dragging his feet, refusing to give Johnny (Pablo Schreiber) his cut until the pay-per-view money comes in. Barry is shrewd – the type of character that Reg E. Cathey was born to play. He low-balls Johnny and deducts all kinds of expenses (limo rides, Moet for Omar and his crew, a new copier to replace the one Johnny broke banging the secretary) from the pay-out.
Because his earning weren’t as much as expected, Johnny can’t afford to pay off his bookie. When the bookie wants to whack Johnny, Brennan (Bill Irwin) intervenes. In return for saving his brother, Lights agrees to fight in an no holds barred cage match against the bookie’s bodyguard. If this sounds totally bad ass, it’s because it is. Underground fighting circuits are awesome. Unfortunately, this whole part doesn’t make sense within the context of the show. If Lights is willing to step into the octagon and fight a guy with no gloves, why won’t he just fight Reynolds? The chances of him doing damage to the brain have to be greater fighting in an empty warehouse against a thug than they would be fighting a professional in the presence of doctors and trainers.
Lights wins the fight, but not before taking a hellacious ass-kicking. After being choked out, almost to the point of unconsciousness, Lights lands a vicious bolo punch to his opponent’s throat. His take from the fight is apparently enough to pay off Johnny’s bookie with some left over to break Omar off a piece. Omar, surprised by Lights’ gesture, opens up to him and admits that quit in the title fight. “We both know I could have gotten back up again. I just didn’t want to.” He says that he isn’t a boxer and walks away as if he is done with the sport for good. This might be the final straw that pushes Lights back into the ring; Omar might not be boxer, but Lights sure as hell is. He doesn’t know how to be anything else.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.