Bookie is a comedy that starts to grow on you once the choppy and nervous writing becomes more accessible with more and more episodes. One can begin to predict even what the next comic movie is going to be, and that’s a problem, but the show benefits from the charm of the lead characters. They get bent out of shape but have their joyful moments, and in the new episodes, I got a hint of a bit of pathos as well, which was unexpected. In a way, the seventh and eighth episodes represent Danny’s microcosm. In the beginning, he is on top, and by the end of the eighth episode, he finds himself hitting rock bottom, and it’s all done with humor, giving every other character a chance to show their acting chops as well.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Danny Deal With So Much Cash?
Danny and Ray hit the jackpot during the Super Bowl, where they had more money than they could handle. Quite literally. They had no place to stash it, and when they took it to their bank, they almost got caught by Carl, who fortunately was distracted by a shootout in the area. The bank had been robbed, and they had so much cash to hide. Party time was over, and after a dinner where Hector pulled in a hooker as his girlfriend, they all went home. The cash problem seemed to be the least of their troubles, but it was something that needed an urgent solution. How long could that amount of cash be kept under Danny’s bed? There were other ‘side problems’ emerging from the whole ordeal. Danny had shown a lack of trust in his wife, Sandra, and she was irked by the subtle implication that she might run away with the cash. Lorraine and Ray visited Danny’s house to decide whether to move the money someplace else and who actually could handle that sort of cash. Lorraine had the idea of burying it in Danny’s backyard, but nobody knew how to dig. Certainly not Danny, who had kept a gardener like some king who didn’t deal with menial issues. While Danny and Ray figured out how to bury the money, Lorraine did a psychedelic therapy session on Sandra, confronting her with her sister Becky, who died in an accident.
How Did Danny Deal With Hector’s Kidnappers?
Hector had committed a huge mistake by telling the hooker about their big score. She must have told her pimp about the cash, and they kidnapped Hector. While Danny and Ray were figuring out a way to bury the cash, they received a call from the kidnappers asking for a ransom of half their score. Danny was willing to let Hector die, but he was not willing to pay the ransom. He was of the opinion that the kidnappers were some low-level petty criminals who wouldn’t dare kill Hector based on his ‘tall tales’ about the 4 million dollars in cash. It later turned out that they had a plan to get Danny out in the open. They released Hector, and he led them straight to Danny’s place. They asked Danny to come out of his house with the cash. Refusal to do so would be met with violence. Danny, taking pride in being the brains behind the operation, if not very handy with a shovel, decided to call Detective Carl, offering him a million dollars. Carl came swinging in with an army and blew the kidnappers to smithereens. The ‘high’ duo of Lorraine and Sandra was safe in all of this, but Sandra was left traumatized when she thought about her son. She was glad that he wasn’t there when the shooting went down, but if he had been, she figured she was living with a man who could bring in much worse trouble any day. There was Vigorish who had traumatized her in the previous episode, who had ravaged her shop, and God only knew what was next. On top of it, he didn’t seem to trust her after all these years. Danny had managed to save most of the cash that could help him run all sorts of businesses, but he was losing the love of his life.
Why Did Sandra Leave Danny?
The main problem was that Danny was a foulmouth who grew up in foster care, and he didn’t think too much before he spoke. He had already spoken about leaving the money someplace else, implying he didn’t trust Sandra, and she hadn’t gotten that out of her head. The morning after the shootout, they had an argument about settling somewhere else. The sore point for Danny was that he would have to leave his current vocation and find a ‘square’ job. Danny, in his manner of spewing hurtful stuff, didn’t think how much he was hurting Sandra when he mentioned ‘giving’ the house and the business to her, and it was all because he was a bookie. He could never hold down a regular job, and he just couldn’t explain that to Sandra properly. Sandra decided to quit working in the jewelry store, and she decided to leave Danny. She had told Danny where she was going, which meant there was still a chance of them reuniting. But Danny, prioritizing his ego, wasn’t ready to visit her and bring her back home. He wasn’t in the mood to apologize, but soon he realized that he couldn’t live without her. Danny tried hard to bury this thought by distracting himself, but all his temporary pleasures couldn’t hold a candle to what Sandra brought into his life.
Danny and Ray visited Charlie Sheen, and he advised Danny to get her back, but not if she forced him to give up his job. According to Charlie, Danny was meant to be a bookie, and if he gave up that job for her, he would start to resent her, and that wouldn’t do anybody any good in the long run. Danny broke up with his actress girlfriend and started thinking of getting Sandra back. His mental health deteriorated, and it was at Ray’s grandmother’s wedding that he finally hit rock bottom. When Frank, the groom, collapsed at the altar, Danny realized that he had to rush to get Sandra back. Danny saw it as a sign. Now, whether or not he would give up his job as a bookie is the question the next episode will answer.
