Posted by Sarah
“To protect my family I will do anything, and that is both my blessing and my curse …”
— Alex Vega, in what I assume is the new opening sequence of Cane
It’s another gorgeous, sunny day in Florida, and Alex Vega is up before his alarm, looking worried. The guy’s got a lot on his mind: His father-in-law passed over his oldest natural son to make him CEO of the family business, and he just had someone bumped off for crimes past. Eventually his alarm goes off and he gets out of bed, showers, and puts on a smokin’ hot suit. He’s ready for his first day as CEO of Duque.
Miguel — half of the duo Alex hired to kill Quinonez — stops Alex and says that unless he gets more money, he’s going to tell the cops where they stashed the body. Alex don’t take kindly to blackmail threats, and says so, in no uncertain terms (and in subtitles, in case we didn’t catch it).
Cut to Alice encouraging Frank to take back what’s rightfully his, and then to Henry telling Frank how his nightclub is taking off and how he wants to pour a bunch of the family money into it. Frank informs him that Alex is planning to go after a government subsidy for the first sugar ethanol refinery — a $100 million project of which the government would pay half. And it wouldn’t be a drama unless the family’s rivals, the Samuels, were also after that subsidy …
Meanwhile, back at Alex’s enormous, jaw-droppingly beautiful mansion, Isabel tries to convince Alex to talk Jaime out of the Army, but Alex insists that he will respect his son’s decision. Back at the office (warehouse, whatever), Miguel and Santo (the other hired gun) square off — Miguel wants more money, and Santo wants him to stop threatening Alex.
Alex’s family throws him a party to close out his first day on the job, and when Isabel opens a gift, a scorpion stings her. Cut to the warehouse, where Miguel is walking alone in the dark calling for Alex, who apparently invited him. In the dark. In the night. Alex jumps him out of nowhere and beats the snot out of him for the scorpion stunt, and tells him “I promise that if I ever see you again, I will be the last person that you ever see.” In other words, he’s so fired.
The next morning, Alex calls a meeting with Santo, shows him the dead scorpion and asks whether the two of them have a problem. Miguel wanted more money — what does Santo want? Santo cries and says that all he wants is to bring his mother to the U.S., and Alex swears he will do this for him. He’ll bring his whole family, as long as it means he can trust Santo. Santo asks where Alex’s real family is (Alex was one of the children who were sent out of Cuba to live with American foster parents during the revolution) and Alex says he has no idea. He asks Santo where Quinonez’ body is, and Santo tells him it’s buried in the Samuels’ cane field, so if it ever turns up, the Samuels will be connected to it instead of Alex.
Alex meets with a Senator to try and get the refinery subsidy, and the Senator’s impressed. Alex goes home and tells the family all about it, and they discuss the possibility of finding a future in ethanol. During the meeting, Alex gets a call from Santo — Miguel is missing. Where would an unsatisfied, beaten-up, unemployed thug go? To the Samuels, of course, to spill the beans to Old Man Samuels, who sits smugly in his huge leather chair behind his imposing wooden desk.
The next day, Alex’s long, sexy, expensive, shiny car pulls up to the parking spot labeled “Alex Vega, CEO,” but — gasp! — another long, sexy, expensive, shiny car is already there! Yup, it’s Samuels, smugly reclined in the driver’s seat, and he lazily informs Alex that Miguel told him everything, and that he’ll tell the Senator everything unless Alex backs off and lets the Samuels have the subsidy. This drives Alex to Pancho’s, where they use a gambling metaphor to avoid talking about how Alex should handle the situation. Alex then goes to Samuels, who is back behind his compensatory desk, and there’s more metaphorical talk:
Samuels: “No good poker player folds a winning hand, and I’ve got one. Do you?”
Alex: “I don’t play poker.”
Oooooh, the gloves are so off. Or am I mixing metaphors?
At breakfast the next day, the cop-voiced cop calls Alex to say Samuels is having the cops dig in his field for Quinonez’ body, and that he dropped Alex’s name. But the dig reveals nothing but a pig carcass — hmm …
Santo picks up Miguel at a club, tells him he’s got a better plan to get Alex’s money, then stuffs Miguel in the trunk of his car, brings Alex out to see him, and points a gun at Miguel’s head. But Alex says that he’s no murderer, so he’s just going to send Miguel back to Cuba.
When Alex gets home, the Senator calls him to say he’s got the refinery subsidy. Alex then calls Santo and tells him to make sure even Santo can’t find Quinonez’ body this time. We cut to another shower scene, but this time it’s Alex trying to wash away his iniquities. Santo is out in the everglades in a rowboat, feeding Quinonez to the gators.
Alex and Jaime have a late-night father/son talk. Alex gives Jaime his St. Michael medal, which he wore when he was in the Army, and tells him that all he wants is for him to be safe. Jaime tells his dad what’s most worrying him, “When I have to kill someone, can I really do it?” Alex says, “When the time comes, Jaime, you’ll do what you have to.”
Breakin’ it down …
- The good: Alex in the shower, twice. The locations are pure eye candy. And this episode did a good job of answering some storyline questions while raising a few more.
- The bad: Um, Alex isn’t a murderer but he hires people to bump people off? And he broke his promise to Miguel, because he wasn’t the last person Miguel will ever see — I’m sure he’ll see a lot of people back in Cuba.
- The ugly: Shameless product placement/plugging in the form of Duque’s convenient and heretofore secret partnership with Chevy, who just happened to be the corporate sponsor monopolizing the limited commercial space during the premiere.