Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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The season 3 finale of Claws is damn near built like a series finale. For with nearly all secrets revealed and confronted, villains handled too, what is left?
| Network | |
| TNT | |
| Director(s) | Dale Stern |
| Writer(s) | Janine Sherman Barrois, Eliot Laurence |
| Air Date | 8/11/2019 |
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Recap
Take, Take, Take: Benedict, Quiet Ann, Desna
With Mac and Melba gone, you may think Desna now has peace. Wrong! Now Benedict moves the line back further and coerces Desna to convince Quiet Ann to get Henry in Benedict’s pocket. I would say the Triad’s pocket but honestly, who knows if Benedict is part of the Triads or just said that to scare Mac and Melba. I mean, all things considered, shouldn’t the Haitians and Russians have long come in to handle how their top people got killed? I’m just saying.
Sometimes You Can’t Just Move On: Dean, Virginia, Ann, Joe, Dr. Ken, Polly, Jenn, Bryce, Clay, Roller, Desna
One problem with Henry getting involved, however, and Desna seizing control of the casino, isn’t just Ann and Henry, it’s Joe. He was promised a promotion of sorts, even a partnership, for working with Benedict and now that is being stolen from him. Though, considering how Desna’s team is disintegrating, maybe he shouldn’t be so mad?
After all, Dean and Virginia get back together and break up, Polly breaks up with him and gets back with Dr. Ken, whose whole drug dealing hasn’t been discovered yet, and then there is Roller’s family. Clay reveals to Jenn about Toby trying to kill Desna, the Clint thing, and that causes a huge blow up at Desna’s party. For Roller pushes Clay into Desna’s birthday cake, after Jenn pressures him to tell the truth, and it’s just a hot ass mess. But what do you expect from a party in Florida?
This Is The End (Or Is It?): Roller, Desna, Quiet Ann, Benedict, Joe, Clay, Toby
However, all that drama doesn’t solve the issue of Benedict. Someone who, for a good minute, seemingly was to be in the middle of a fight between Desna and Ann. For with Ann and Joe talking, making it seem they were going to work together behind Desna’s back, maybe as punishment, it seemed a new villain was rising. But, in the end, those two working together was just to murder Benedict and burn down the casino. That way if Joe can’t have it, no one can, and as for Ann? Well, I guess the fire was supposed to end Desna’s endless pursuit for more and dragging everyone past yet another gate of hell. Oh, and to add insult to injury, Ann has no qualms telling Desna what she did.
But, before the fire and all of that, there remains Roller going to jail due to Toby’s confession. Long story short, Roller turns himself in, Clay is instructed to find Toby, which he does through Grindr, but Clay can’t kill that child. So, instead, he tells him to run and says to Desna he couldn’t find Toby.
This leads to Desna’s plan B, which is not only getting Roller off a bus going to prison but killing the people driving it and sending him off to Cuba. The place he’ll likely stay, alone, for quite some time as Desna, in pursuit of a dollar, loses the woman we met back in the series premiere.
Question(s) Left Unanswered
- When Mac and Melba died, did Dean inherit anything?
Review
Highlights
Quiet Ann Is Not Quiet Anymore
Let’s be real, the reason Quiet Ann was quiet was because there really wasn’t much to her character before. Yeah, she had a child who we never met or know if she is alive. Also, her whole family is queer. But the show hasn’t really cared about that. Hell, Ann being bi or lesbian was more so used as a joke than anything serious most of the time.
That’s at least until Arlene, and that back and forth took Ann off auto-pilot. Not just as a character, but how she was written as well. So can you blame her for what she did? Due to Desna, who now owes everyone much more than they owed her when the show began, Ann lost the one person in her life who, generally, told her the truth. Desna doesn’t. Ann’s family is all closeted, and she only learned the truth about her parents within the past year (last season specifically) and as for the crew? Honestly, they all are probably one situation of Ann saying something they don’t like from going off on her.
But it wasn’t always like that, you know? And, let’s be honest, as noted in past recaps, this show has long been on a path where all it could do is escalate with bigger organizations, more money, and more trouble for Desna and her crew. Making Ann burning down the casino and likely killing Benedict a possible reset to the show.
Well, assuming like Ruval, Riva, Clint, and Zlata, that killing someone who seems to be a notable figure in a major crime organization doesn’t lead to their boss or peers showing up to see what’s going on.
Clay Has Truly Changed
Clay is the only villain on this show who has lived multiple seasons. Which is strange, when you think about it. He has never really been on Desna’s side, and hasn’t even really been supportive of his boys through and through either. Yet, since Juanda died, and he got humbled, he really has changed.
I’d even say season 3 was the confirmation that he not only changed but wanted to. He tried to compete with Desna, be a kingpin himself, but in the end, he just wanted what Desna originally did – stability and safety. Two things he had since Desna’s drama didn’t come directly at him, and while he was living in a humbling situation, there was peace if he wanted it. Plus, money-wise, it seemed he didn’t want for much since cash was never really mentioned as an issue for him. Hell, even Toby didn’t complain all that much about it.
And in that, you realize Clay really has boiled down to his essentials. Perhaps, in a way, his fall mirrors Desna’s rise and where she might be next season. For Clay did get in over his head and had an escalating presence in his businesses trying to push him around until eventually, he stopped playing the game. For in pursuit of being the boss, he lost his wife, his nephews off and on, and nearly lost his life a few times. Leading you to wonder if he might talk to Desna, and help her see reason, before it isn’t someone close to Ann that dies but Dean or a member of her crew. Lest we forget, she did almost lose Virginia who, marriage or not, is like her annoying little sister.
Virginia Not Willing To Go Back To How Things Used To Be
Virginia’s storyline switched from a joke to getting very real. Similar to Clay and Ann, this was a season reminding us how far she had come from when we first met her. Before she was just a silly girl with ho-ish tendencies, who was just trying to survive. Now, she is a woman with friends, a family, and options. Not options like before of picking her poison but options in the form of things which will nourish her, help her grow as a person, professional, and a partner.
So her getting some D from Dean then rejecting his assumption they are back together is a sign she is better than ever. For now, she not only owns her sex but the trajectory her life can take. On top of that, she knows her safety net, or support system, is so secure that she doesn’t need Dean to have it. Virginia finally has something for herself, and one of those things is her peace of mind.
On The Fence
Dr. Ken Back In Polly’s Life
*Rolls Eyes* Admittedly I don’t like Dr. Ken, probably never did, and him being killed off would have not been an issue. Yet, he lived and rather than be single and get her mind right, Polly jumped right back with him. Which sucks however, at the same time, as noted above, this season has largely been about transformation. It jump-started a lot of characters from living in the background, and just being on whatever path Desna was on. Which, for Polly, due to Joe, sent her down a dark path of murder, extortion, and expanding beyond Desna being fine with someone who lives in a world of moral ambiguity.
Making Dr. Ken, even if he is now dealing pills, a safer choice if we want to see Polly stay alive and get hurt less. Though I still hope, if there is a season 4, the Triads or whoever kill him to show they mean business.
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