Animal Kingdom
4×12: “Exodus”
Directed by Nick Copus
Written by Bradley Paul

* For a recap & review of 4×11, click here.
* For a recap & review of the series finale, click here.
Pope’s talking about all kinds of jobs he’s done, specifically mentioning hitting a wedding on a yacht they did a while back. He wants to give information in exchange for a transfer to another prison. About “a dozen cases” could be closed with confessions from Pope. A lawyer says that Pope will have to testify in court and give up information on associates. Pope then says there’s “another body” belonging to a guy called Colby buried off the highway someplace. He’s willing to show the lawyer the location of the corpse.
At the same time, Deran, Craig, and J are preparing their weaponry for the upcoming prison break. They’ve also got diamonds leftover they can fence for more money to fund their escape. Billy’s man is helping Deran to get things straight on the prison end of the plan. So, it seems like all is in place. We watch Deran saying goodbye to his bar; the place nearly pulled him out of his family’s criminal life, but Smurf sucked him back in and he was never able to crawl out.

Flashback to Janine accidentally discovering someone was shorting her end of the deal with her pal Reggie on the spools of wiring. You can already tell where this is headed. She would surely go on to discover Julia was stealing from her.
The Cody boys are signing documents with Penny to get everything in line regarding their finances, including thumbprints from each of them. Now it’s all finalised legally. When Penny’s gone, Craig and Deran ask how much she knows about what’s happening. J explains that Penny doesn’t know anything more than the fact they’re splitting up their assets and ending the family business.
In the desert, a police forensics unit digs for bodies while Pope gets some fresh air.
After some time, a body’s found. Pope’s prison transfer will go through.
Flashback to Julia arriving home to Smurf waiting in her room. The place had been tossed. Smurf asked what her daughter stole from her. She then told Julia to get out of the house. Janine took everything from Julia, slapping her in the face and throwing her around the place. She called her daughter “a pathetic little whore” and dragged her by the hair into the street. A horrific scene that shows just how awful Janine was as a mother and as a person. Pope had to watch it all happen, doing and saying nothing at all. Later on, Smurf went to see Baz and asked if he was getting a piece of Julia’s skim. She told him Julia was banished from the house, as well as Baz’s place, and Baz had no choice but to agree with the woman who gave him the house. Just a terrible woman.

J tells Penny he’s splitting away from his uncles. “They don‘t respect me, they don‘t like me,” he says. He explains he’s going away to the Virgin Islands. He wants Penny to go with him, too. J sees it as a simple decision, whereas Penny has a whole life in Oceanside she can’t simply walk away from without a word. He says he’ll take care of her and everything they need. He also tells Penny he loves her. God, J, you move fast. While J’s romancing, his uncles are getting cars ready and discussing the plan to make it to the border. Back at home, the uncles and nephew look over their planned route using “utility access roads.” They’re going to make use of dirt bikes and dune buggies to better help evade helicopters and any other cops. J suggests they also “GPS Pope” to keep track of him.

J goes to visit Pope in prison. He brought along photos, including one of Julia and Pope when they were younger; inside of that photo is a tiny tracker. “See you soon,” J tells Pope once their visit is finished. Deran and Craig are out enjoying some waves before they leave Oceanside forever. Craig asks if Deran’s going to call Adrian after getting to Indonesia. He says the happiest he ever saw Deran was when Deran moved in with Adrian. After surfing, the brothers get into a violent street fight for good old times’ sake when a group of real dude-bro surfers fuck with them.
Flashback to a houseless Julia going to see Baz, who reluctantly let her inside. She was very clearly not doing well. She had nothing at all; not even clothes, and definitely no money. She went on about Smurf and how Pope did nothing. She asked if she could crash there, but Baz refused. He wasn’t about to turn his back on Smurf, even if it meant kicking Julia out onto the streets. Such a tragic moment. It’s what would lead Julia to heroin and her permanent battle with addiction, too. And it’s how J would eventually come to live with Smurf and his uncles many years later; that was the end result.

“Without trust, anything can happen.”

J goes to see Penny and asks her to change things with the paperwork regarding the Codys finances. He’s trying to get her to go along with it, despite the fact it could land her in jail. He then tells Penny his uncles are “extremely dangerous people.” He says his uncles are also murderers. Then he claims his family’s trying to murder him, as well. He makes out his attempt to steal from his uncles as some fairy tale about needing to get away before they kill him. In prison, Pope’s doing some handy work to implant the GPS chip under his skin. He slices open his previous stab wound and slips the chip inside the wound, then uses some electricity to cauterise the wound closed. Deviously impressive. At home, Craig calls Renn and tells her about the plans, including that he wants to get married “on an elephant.” He formally asks and Renn accepts. They want to give their baby a good life somewhere far from Cody chaos.
But will it happen if J has his way?

The nephew is out at the location where they stashed the cars. What’s he plotting?
Flashback to a phone call at Smurf’s place. She picked up and it was a friend of Julia’s, who found Julia fucked up on the beach and barely talking. Smurf told the friend: “You should call someone who gives a shit.” Quite cold. The friend tried to help Julia, but Julia was lost in the heroin trying to get away from all the pain she was dealing with inside.
Back at the house, J arrives to meet his uncles. Everything’s ready to go for tomorrow when Pope is getting transferred. Craig and Deran are having a few drinks together, whereas J opts to get a good night’s rest. Of course J’s not going to bed. He goes straight to the computer, transferring the money from the Cody family trust to another account; nearly $6-million. Shit is about to go DOWN.