After
the tumultuous exercise in transgression and ultraviolent chase thriller action
that was the fifth episode in Danish provocateur Nicolas Winding Refn’s Los
Angeles crime saga Too Old to Die Young,
the show pumps the brakes as it catches back up with the Mexican cartel. As its new King and Queen, Yaritza (Cristina
Rodlo) and Jesus (Augusto Aguilera) are sworn in under oath of marriage, laying
out the chess pieces by relocating back to the United States with orders that
the Nigerian crimelord Damian (Babs Olusanmokun) be taken out.
Delaying
the opening titles until a dance sequence/shootout, roughly twenty minutes into
the episode, already the plot is thickening as the style becomes more
heightened in surreal dreaminess and the violence steadily becomes more
startling in its extremity. Let it be
said though, the sight of Damian dancing to Prince Buster's Ten Commandments as multicolored neon-fluorescent
lights hit his face in an open back alleyway is a most delightful Refn
abstraction.
What
particularly sets this episode apart from the pack is that we’re finally
allowed insight into the head and past life of Jesus and the depraved depths of
his connection to his mother as well as his bloodlust for revenge for her
death. Jesus is a near silent character
for most of the show and seeing him granted a full-blown monologue filling in
the gaps of his back history we’ve wondered about for the first six episodes is
more than a little jarring though it’s the first time we get slightly closer to
this character.
The
episode also grants equal room for the ever mysterious and dangerous Yaritza to
flesh out her character some more, focusing on the partnership with Jesus and
how they back one another up. Late into
the episode is a curious sequence where she runs into none other than Martin
Jones’ (Miles Teller) girlfriend Janey (Nell Tiger Free) and engages in a
guessing game with a startlingly nasty finish.
Playing
like a direct sequel to the second episode The
Lovers with many of the recurring Cliff Martinez musical cues from that
episode playing out to operatic effect here, The High Priestess scales back the energy of the previous episode The Fool in favor of allowing breathing
room for the new leaders of the Mexican cartel to make themselves known to the
viewer. Up until this point we had only
really come to know Jesus as a chilly sociopath. While his aura of cool detachment remains
intact here, that we’re allowed to see him open up for the first time is a most
rewarding development in the story, even leaving room for sympathy for his plight.
With
four episodes left to go in the ever shape-shifting crime saga, Too Old to Die Young is shaping up to be
the densest mobster epic in recent memory, Refn’s The Godfather or Goodfellas if
you will. Thus far it has been a wild
and elongated ride which at first glance tests the patience of the viewer but
having waded through much of it by now, the thrill of the narrative hook once
sunken in is a hard one for this longtime Refn fan to shake!
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki