Cinemax’s Quarry
Season 1, Episode 7: “Carnival of Souls”
Directed by Greg Yaitanes
Written by Michael D. Fuller & Graham Gordy

* For a review of the previous episode, “His Deeds Were Scattered” – click here
* For a review of the finale, “nước chảy đá mòn” – click here

Nixon and McGovern are going head to head in the news. Mac (Logan Marshall-Green) hears about Eugene Linwood on the news, too. Then Joni (Jodi Balfour) brings up talking to his father Lloyd (Skip Sudduth) about selling the house. It’s listed now, so too late to have a real discussion. He’s not overly thrilled. Not at all. On top of PTSD and being seen as a war criminal after coming home from Vietnam, Mac’s home is slipping away. But Joni only wants to help. She doesn’t want him drowning under the weight of what The Broker (Peter Mullan) has him do for money. Mostly Mac hates that Joni takes the responsibility on as her own. That’s how it works, though. When two people are together, for better or worse, they both take on each other’s pain.

So where does business take ole Quarry next?
Well, Karl (Edoardo Ballerini), he’s keeping an eye on the fat man, Credence Mason (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), a veritable maniac of a Southern gentleman. And The Broker, he waits out by the pool for Mac at the Conway place. At least Mac’s down to $12K now. Whittling away at the debt. The next job is indeed Mr. Mason.
Down at the station, Detectives Tommy Olsen (Josh Randall) and Verne Ratliff (Happy Anderson) are mulling some of the former’s obsession over the Cliff Williams murder. Verne doesn’t think there’s anything worth looking at, but Tommy can’t let go of believing Mac is up to something nasty. And we know he’s right. Tommy talks about Quan Thang, believing Mac brought all that horror back home to Memphis with him. “Unless you‘ve been to war you can‘t judge a man who has,” Ratliff explains. That is a very good point, even when we’re talking about murder for hire.

On the topic of murders, Karl is a bit of a nasty bastard himself. He’s killing like a champion marksman, picking up errant packages of heroin to take home for The Broker and Oldcastle (Tom Noonan). A proper happy family. And The Broker’s making moves in the Memphis scene. Perhaps a bit of hubris? Karl doesn’t think it’s exactly a smart idea, which falls on deaf ears.
In his bathroom, Marcus finds a bag full of money: the cash his dad stashed away. Oh, shit. He puts it away for the time being and says nothing to his mother Ruth (Nikki Amuka-Bird).
More Buddy (Damon Herriman) and his mother Naomi (Ann Dowd). She helps him trying on clothes for a big day. They argue over the word “twat.” He shows up over at the dealership to talk with The Broker about their gun racket. Buddy wants to take their enterprise to the next level, he doesn’t want to be the middle man anymore. But his boss doesn’t like the sound of that plan, much to Buddy’s dismay. More than that The Broker sort of digs in with a remark about his “artwork” that explains his cutting out of pictures, et cetera, last episode. Now Buddy and Mac are on the road together, no matter if Buddy just had his dreams crushed.
They’ve got to go look after Mason. He’s a big deal in Dixie. So getting at him requires going through a few others. While they wait and watch, Buddy winds up asking Mac about his service, a little direct. Essentially, he levels about committing murder. He used to “keep count” on the number. “Until one dad I didn‘t,” he explains. They get lost in talk to the point Mason creeps up on them. They use the excuse of being gay, looking for a spot to be together alone, so as not to blow their cover. Except Mason ain’t dumb. He knows there’s trouble. The boys done fucked up, what will they do now?

The Broker shows up like a greasy bastard at the Conway house, while Mac is gone. He pretends to be from down the road, looking at the place. Curious as a cat. Then he gets the story of Mac supposedly having a “new job” and that they’re relocating. God damn, this isn’t good.
In the world of Mr. Mason there’s heroin missing, naturally. Him and his boys try to figure out what happened, if somebody’s trying to make moves on them. Credence proves himself a smart man, he understands already what’s gone on right under his nose. He laments it more than gets angry.
It’s nice to see Ruth connecting with Moses a.k.a Felix (Mustafa Shakir). Although she’s busy working and later that night it’s Halloween, so that means she’s too busy to go with Felix for dinner. Rain check for next week, though. I hope the business side of Moses doesn’t encroach too hard on this burgeoning relationship. Ruth deserves better.
And then there’s Tommy, fucking up his relationship with Sandy (Kaley Ronayne) because he used her brother’s death to get into her bed. Now the whole thing is gone sour. She wants to let go of things, he wants to hang on, and that adds up to nothing easy for them.
One of Mason’s boys sits back watching Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls on Halloween night. He gives out candy at his door to trick or treating kids. One of the next knocks happens to be Buddy and Mac, and things get tricky, indeed. Toes get blown off, a foot gets put in the hot oven. Only the guy passes out from Buddy being too “results oriented” for his own good. Poor ole Mac, he sees that Asian mask lurking outside the door with trick or treaters, as Buddy covers his face and gives out more candy. Fittin that Harvey’s film is on television – a movie about a woman seeing dead people all around her, much like Mac. He’s riding in his own personal carnival of souls. After Buddy gets the information needed, he kills their man, then he and Mac can head out.

But there’s problems at home. Joni calls and he rushes back. Nothing’s happening, just a little freak out on her part. Despite it all, Mac is a good man. He comforts his wife when she needs it, he does whatever he can. What’s the latest problem? Tommy is following him. Right back to meet Buddy, and on to the next stop. Shit. Straight to Dixieville.
Mason’s gang are loading a pinball machine up with drugs to ship out. Outside, Buddy and Mac prepare to drop the hammer; the former popping a bunch of pills and downing some booze beforehand. ‘Cause that helps, right?! A point of contention between the pair. When they go in there are surprises, more men showing up. Nothing ever goes as planned.
Just like when Dt. Olsen pulls his gun, standing behind Mac as our anti-hero mutters: “What the fuck?”

Great cap to another fine tuned episode! I love this god damn series. I need several seasons, more and more. Please, give it to me now Cinemax. We’re already at the Season 1 finale next episode. Wow. Renewal is imminent, if not the network is certifiably nuts.