Animal Kingdom: 5 theories after the events of Season 4, Episode 2

Angela

Season 4 is the season of the past, but it’s also the season of Julia. An old friend from the past, Angela, has arrived in Oceanside and she’s ready to give Julia’s memory a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. Smurf hates all women so this is obviously a great annoyance to her, but she doesn’t like the way Angela is buddying up to Pope either. The two of them are bound to connect since they both lost Julia and probably see a bit of her in each other.

Animal Kingdom isn’t exactly known for their great supporting cast minus a few exceptions, and they’re also known for bringing in unnecessary supporting characters that hang around well past their expiration date (*cough* Frankie *cough*). It’s too soon to determine which kind of character Angela will be.

What this could mean?

Because Season 4 is all about the past and its prime focus seems to be Pope’s mental state, Angela’s presence will most likely resurrect his lighter side once again, bringing back the Pope we saw in Season’s 2 and 3.

Angela brings the three-way bond between the Cody twins and Barry Blackwell to a full circle. Julia and Baz are both dead and Pope has been left to cling on to the last remaining pieces of them, Baz’s daughter and now Julia’s best friend. This will either become a way for Pope to finally heal, or it’ll break him beyond repair.

Smurf

Something is going on with Smurf and it’s not what anyone expected. Throughout the episode, Smurf was shown to be feeling some sort of aches and pains. She woke up with a heating pad and ransacked the house looking for pain killers, but never said anything to the boys. It seemed to be nothing major until she passed out at the end of the episode with the preview for next week showing her taking an MRI.

Is she sick? Has J added poisoning to his growing list of crimes?

What this could mean?

I’m sure people want Smurf to go out in a blaze of glory, but a natural illness is somehow more fitting for such a character. It would certainly be a surprise if the show gave her cancer out of the blue but there’s a cruel honesty in Smurf slowly withering away from a killer that doesn’t discriminate between sinner and saint.

Smurf has fought her whole life for power and to die, or be weakened by something completely out of her control, violently stripes away the protective shell she’s built around herself because in the end no matter what she did, she’s as vulnerable as anyone else.

The seasonal job

Every season has one big job with a big payoff and this one is brought to us by Frankie brought to her by some billionaire a-hole that wants to pay them $800K to steal some statue he lost at an auction.

It doesn’t sound as exciting as the military base or the church gigs but I’m sure they’ll be complications and I really want to see this amazing statue worth a robbery and $800,000. There’s no need to break this plot point down because it’s too early to make assumptions and all their jobs end in pretty much the same way, in success and loads of money.

Don’t miss the next episode of Animal Kingdom next Tuesday at 9p/8c. on TNT.