The Book of Rannells: Black Monday: Season 2, Episode 5 – “Violent Crooks and Cooks of Books” (2020)

Today, I’m staying home for Bob Dylan.

Hitting the midpoint of the season already! While the last few episodes have given us a hint of the shape the story is taking, this is the episode that really appears to line things up; I’m excited to see where things are going (one spoiler that can’t be avoided.)

Dawn and Blair aren’t exactly thrilled at the return of the conquering hero – Mo, unexpectedly back in their lives and back at their firm. His presence incenses a new business partner of theirs, and with their partner’s funds hastily pulled in response, Blair devises a scheme (a scheme one might call Ponzi, if you will) to wrangle up enough money to keep the firm afloat without that capital. Soon, he and Dawn are off on a mission to convince Harris’s televangelist father-in-law to get into financial bed with them.

Even though the season to date has delivered some great episodes focusing mainly on Mo or mainly on Dawn and Blair, this episode immediately reminds us why these three are at their best together. From Mo’s entrance onto the scene, the comic chemistry sizzles, and Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, and Andrew Rannells trade insults and cracks with the best of them. Even though their storylines then diverge for a good chunk of the episode, it feels great to have the old band back together (albeit in the stage of the band’s career when pretty much everything is toxic and they all kind of hate each other.) We’re seeing the weaving of another tangled web of plots, gambits, and potential double-crosses, and it’ll be fun to see how these three play each other before the end.

We also have some good stuff for the minor characters. Yassir and Wayne continue their plot from last week, with Wayne getting in on the ground floor of the MRA movement (I’ve come to the conclusion that this season definitely has more winking references to the present, and I’ve decided I’m okay with that.) Plus, we follow one of the characters to prison, where we’re treated to a spectacular barber-shop-quartet number explaining the softer treatment of white(-collar) criminals compared to their war-on-drugs counterparts.

The televangelist plot is great, too, which is where we get our best Blair moments. Harris’s father-in-law lives on his private plane (to be closer to God and “further from AIDS” – the reaction shot is exquisite), and that means we get Blair reasoning that Jesus “seemed like a private jet kind of guy.” Obviously, trapping Dawn and Blair in the sky with a sexist, racist homophobe who they want to milk for all his cash is just a recipe for comic success, and the storyline doesn’t disappoint.

Where Mo is concerned, though, this is the first chance Rannells has had to share scenes with Cheadle all season. Blair has changed so much since season 1, both in terms of his instincts/actions and the image he presents of himself. This creates a different dynamic for him and Mo, which is really neat to watch.