Lights Out: "Rainmaker"

Once I figure out how someone’s hands can be registered as a lethal weapon, I’ll offer up a review of tonight’s episode, after the jump….

“Boxers box. It’s what they do.” – Pops Leary

Lights Out seems to enjoy throwing cautionary whales across its titular character’s path, warning signs about the danger of the boxing world. Omar taught him the price of pride. Reynolds serves as an example of the dangers of playing ball. Ed Romeo showed what one gives up when they make boxing their whole life. (The same thing can be said for Mike the reporter.) And tonight we met Jerry “The Rainmaker” Rains (played by David Morse), who is perhaps the most obvious whale of them all. While we have known since episode one that Lights has a medical condition brought on by his past blows to the head, and we’ve seen him have slight memory problems, we’ve never seen how severe these problems can get, as they have with Jerry. Despite the fact that we know how dangerous this disease is for Lights, it was still sobering to see the reality of it staring us in the face. What’s more, given that we are approaching the season (series?) finale, it’s quite possible that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of this disease; so if it rears its ugly head once again, you can bet it’s going to be at the worst possible time, and that it’ll be a dozy.

But the stronger implication of Jerry’s appearance tonight is the idea that no matter what you do, you can never take the fight out of the boxer. We’ve seen how restless Lights has been during his five years of retirement, and it's implied that Pops only coaches boxers so that he can be close to the sport in which he can no longer participate. But once again, Jerry brought that idea in to full relief: not only has he debased himself, exploiting his past (and no longer existent) fame by hocking autographed photos at the flea market, and relying on whatever friends he can for support, but he also wants to fight whenever he can, even if their outcomes wouldn't amount to much. Just re-watch that riveting freak-out he had at Light’s gym when the Leary men refused to let him fight. If Jerry is where Lights will eventually be, then I fear for his (admittedly fictional) family.

“Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons.”-Lights Leary

But the real question to emerge tonight is one that fundamentally changes the show’s nature, yet given the low viewership numbers, one that won’t get much time to be addressed: Is Lights an anti-hero? Up until this point in the season, Lights has been depicted as a man up against the metaphorical wall, only getting his hands dirty in order to keep himself and his family afloat. And tonight, as the shit Lights has been wading in went from knee to chest height, he seems to have stepped up his game accordingly. Or was it really necessary? At various moments tonight I couldn’t help but notice parallels between Lights and Walter White from Breaking Bad; both of these men may have been forced into these criminal situations by circumstances beyond their control, but these criminal doings also seemed to have awakened within them a sense of anger, and they seem to revel in this chance to rebel against the system.

And yet Lights doesn’t seem to be the only one who's been transformed into an anti-hero. Sure, we’ve always known that the world of Lights Out is full of unsavory characters – Barry and Brennan, just to name two – but this immorality has also begun to affect some of the members of his family. Teresa suggests that Lights sets up the mentally-handicapped Jerry as the fall guy, in what is decidedly a move to save his own ass. Conversely, Pops suggest that Lights just let the feds take him, confident that the family can find a way to work the system in their favor. Boxing seems to be a morally compromising world not only for the boxer, but for those who align themselves with boxers. Even Lights' final choice, which is admittedly not the worst of all of the options presented tonight, still reeks of immortality. Taking advantage of a man’s medical condition in order to keep yourself out of jail is a bit low, even if a) the man agrees to the job, knowing that his condition will save him from jail and b) you pay him handsomely for his services. (I have to wonder: what will Johnny think of Lights’ use of his money, even if it did technically get him out of this tight spot? It’s not like he had to pay Jerry…)

But I don’t mean to imply that all of the anti-hero characterization is a bad thing; in fact, I happen to think it’s fantastic. Granted, I tend to be a sucker for a well-done anti-hero, as I just find that kind of character immensely fascinating, but I think this move will also help to deepen some of the show’s slightly more static characters (especially Teresa). Unfortunately, all of this is coming out in the tenth episode of a thirteen episode order, and it makes me wish that the show had gone down this thread a lot sooner. (Though given that the plots that ran tonight were introduced in the first few episodes, I can’t help but sense that this may be due to the fact that the show’s creator, Justin Zachman, was ousted as show runner in favor of Warren Lieght. But again, that’s just a theory.)

But the other masterstroke tonight was the way that the story was moved forward, both within the episode and a from a season long perspective. I don’t mean this as a knock against the show, but often the A-plot is kept separate from the B- and (when existent) C-plots, which often keeps the episode from congealing into a whole, even if there is usually  some sort of thematic connection. But blending the A- and B-plots together, by having Jerry take care of Lights’ dirty works? That’s just gold. Not only does it play into the anti-hero ambience that I discussed above, but it was so beautifully crafted, and it was such a legitimate surprise that I couldn’t help but be floored.

While Lights Out's approach to narrative storytelling – breaking it up into episode-sized chunks, so that something seems to have been accomplished by the end of each hour – is great for avoiding the formless feeling that sometimes happens when shows attempts to go for full tilt sterilization, it also tends to ruin the momentum between episodes. But tonight we entered the home stretch, and with some of the earlier stories coming back again tonight, the season as a whole has finally started to take its own shape. There now exists the proper amount of momentum going into the season finale; the next two hours look to be fantastic, and Lights Out is finally looking like a show I will actually miss, regardless of whether the end will in two weeks from now, or years down the line.   

What did everybody else think?

Additional Thoughts:

“Some fat guy says ‘Good luck.’”

A classic headline: “Councilman Hess in Hooker Mess”

There was just an unnecessary use of the moniker “champ” tonight, wasn’t there?