r/animalkingdom

What can I say, some episodes I felt like switching off, but man I loved them heists they'd pull off.

Without duplicating recent posts, what do we think happened eventually happened to Deran and J?

i finished Animal Kingdom last night and all i can say is what the FUCK. i literally have no one to talk to about this. in my mind the entire last season doesn’t exist, Pope (my fav of course) is OKAY he’s TOTALLY FINE and he’s happy and all the boys are together😀(im so sad😭)

Does anyone else find it weird how J was just randomly so adament about wanting this random woman that is married and she's clearly a bit of a goodie twoshoes?

Like it feels very rushed and out of character, J isn't dumb at all so it seems weird that he didn't think "Hey, Penny won't be okay with what I'm doing." Like I know he wanted to hide it and jave a "normal" woman but all of them should know it's better to have a woman that's in the know than one that's not.

https://preview.redd.it/nulhbgyr3z1h1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c17e931dc48161792ec70c08e25d0abdfc47cb3

Allez, le combo 5/6/7/9/10 ! La semaine a été dure et on n'est que lundi 😃 Mais je m'accroche !

Young Smurf is genuinely one of the most vile, selfish, emotionally manipulative characters I’ve ever seen on television. Demonic, evil, inhumane, foul mouthed fish wife, selfish, lying, insensitive toad of a woman. And I need to get this off my chest because WHAT is she doing to Julia???

First of all, the high school situation. Pope and Baz are stealing computers, and instead of dealing with HER CHILDREN, she IMMEDIATELY blames Julia for it like she’s some kind of scapegoat. Julia had NOTHING to do with it. Not only that, she fully excuses Pope like he can do no wrong. It’s disgusting.

Then when Pope gets expelled, what does she do? Does she take accountability? Does she deal with her son? NO. She straight-up lies and flips it onto Julia instead, claiming Julia got expelled. Like what kind of twisted, manipulative parenting is that???

And don’t even get me started on the job scene.

Julia finally gets her first job. FIRST. JOB. At a clothing store. A normal, healthy step forward in life. And instead of being even remotely proud, Smurf shows up and completely DEMOLISHES her. No pride, no encouragement, nothing. Just insults, guilt-tripping, and making everything about herself like always. It’s like she can’t stand Julia having even ONE independent moment. And the fact that she had the guts to tell her that she always worked her whole life? That's utter horseshit.

And then she pushes her into stealing a car.

A CAR.

And the worst part? Julia actually says yes. That’s how deep the manipulation goes. That’s how trapped she is in Smurf’s control.

I swear, watching this woman operate is infuriating. Every time Julia tries to be her own person, Smurf drags her back down into chaos, crime, and emotional abuse while pretending it’s “family” or “life lessons.”

I’m genuinely losing my mind watching this woman destroy her own daughter piece by piece.

I genuinely don’t understand how people admire J. To me, he was the worst of them all. In the end, he wasn’t any different from Baz or Smurf.

People defend him because he had a difficult childhood, and that’s true. His mother was a junkie, he grew up without his family, and he was abandoned. But people forget an important detail: when Julia was thrown out, Craig and Deran were still kids, and Pope was mentally unstable and completely under Smurf’s control. Pope often didn’t even fully understand what was happening around him.

That’s why I don’t blame Pope, Craig, or even Baz as much as people do. The real person responsible was Smurf. She was the one making the decisions. You don’t throw your pregnant daughter out and leave her alone like that. The others didn’t really have the power to go against her.

People also say J was treated badly by the family, which is true at times. But they forget that while he was managing the family business when Smurf was in prison, he was secretly stealing money from them. That’s one of the main reasons Deran stopped trusting him and started treating him differently afterward. J betrayed them first.

And honestly, respect was never automatically given in that family. Even the brothers constantly fought and disrespected each other. Craig complained early in the series about always getting the dirty jobs from Baz and Pope. There were tensions between everyone all the time. In that family, you had to earn your place and earn respect.

Eventually, J actually did earn his place. After Smurf died, he became a true part of the family and was basically running things alongside Deran. He finally had the respect and position he always wanted.

And yet, in the end, he still betrayed all of them.

What makes it worse to me is that after Julia died, they took him in. They gave him a home, money, protection, and a future. Without them, J probably would’ve ended up alone or in foster care. They helped make him who he became, but he still held onto his hatred and turned against them anyway.

People also forget that J was a murderer too. He killed Morgan, he killed Penny, and he killed the Latina woman as well. That’s three murders. Yet people still act like he was morally better than the others.

That’s why I see J as the real hypocrite of the story. He acted like family meant nothing, while despite all their flaws, Craig, Deran, and especially Pope still had a real sense of loyalty and family.

Pope suffered the most out of everyone, and he didn’t deserve what happened to him. He was broken and manipulated, but he was also the only one who still had genuine humanity left in him.

J, on the other hand, acted out of selfishness from beginning to end. Not for Julia. Not for revenge. For himself.

And in the end, he became exactly like Smurf and Baz: someone who only cared about himself.

I know by the end of the show j betrays them or something idk I haven’t finished it but whatever happened I can’t say I’ll feel bad for the brothers because they never gave a shit about him when Smurf died they had him doing all the business work and barely seemed appreciative if he stopped taking care of business they all would have been broke and in jail. J is the only who is worth feeling bad for if I being honest since his mom died he had to pull his weight and man up fast vs 3 grown ass men that yes are traumatized but at the end of day are still grown ass men that can choose to change whenever they want

Never heard this before Animal Kingdom. Came on during on a flashback Scene with Smurf and can’t stop listening to it. Amazing song. Anyone else feeling that?

To me personally pope is very fucking annoying yea I know he has trauma but so does his other brothers and to make matters worse he was so protective over Lena but she didn’t even really like him because of how weird he would act . So many people said that by the end of the show I would like him but honestly no I don’t he’s just a weirdo he constantly goes through these things that he should learn from and want to grow from but he constantly takes it as a personal attack time and time again like there’s literally no progression with the same way he treated J in season 1 is basically the same way he treats him in season 6 . Even Craig has more character development than pope

My thoughts:

My dislike for Deran keeps growing and I hate saying that because I genuinely rooted for him before. But he keeps taking shots at J every chance he gets. The bowling alley argument annoyed me SO much. Deran acting morally superior because J bought it with Smurf’s money??? Brother… your bar was funded by stolen money too 💀 You literally rob people for a living. The hypocrisy was unbelievable.

J continues to make me feel 50 different emotions at once. I still feel bad for him because no matter what he does, someone in the family eventually blames him for everything. But at the same time, he’s becoming colder and more detached every season. You can really see Smurf’s influence all over him now.

The flashbacks are getting genuinely disturbing. Watching Smurf slowly groom Pope and Julia into crime as CHILDREN is awful. The speeding scene shocked me because Julia was clearly scared (which is completely normal for a kid??) and Smurf basically tells her to toughen up instead of comforting her. That scene said everything about her parenting style. Vulnerability is treated like a weakness in that family.

And honestly, Julia’s whole story just keeps getting sadder the more we learn. It really feels like she was emotionally failed by everyone around her from a young age.

Pope this season is heartbreaking to watch. He seems completely lost without Smurf, even though she damaged him so badly. The visions, the emotional crashes, the dissociation… Shawn Hatosy is acting his ass off. Pope feels like someone whose entire identity collapsed overnight and now he has no idea who he is anymore.

Also the heist in episode 6 kept me on the edge of my seat!

WTF!!? I really never had a problem with J until the last 2 episodes. That was so messed up! When Billy told Deran not to trust J I was like yeah ok Billy but nope he was right! So J was playing them this whole time? That’s so crazy

Thoughts:

Smurf is the worst mother I've ever seen on television. At first I thought she was just manipulative with a caring side underneath, but after finding out she had Baz killed?? HER OWN SON?? And admitting it so casually?? Yeah no. This woman treats her children like possessions. If they stop orbiting around her, she turns on them immediately.

Pope continues to be the character that emotionally destroys me the most. Shawn Hatosy’s acting is unbelievable. The scene where he crashed out after everything happening with Lena genuinely hurt to watch. I know Pope has done horrible things, but there’s something deeply sad and lonely about him that keeps making me feel for him. His voice and quietness weirdly soothe me too and I hate that this show has done this to me 😂

Losing Lena clearly messed Pope up badly. You can tell she represented something innocent and grounding for him. Every scene involving those two is sweet but also deeply uncomfortable because of the Catherine situation hanging over everything.

J keeps making my feelings flip flop every episode. Sometimes I feel awful for him because the entire family scapegoats him for things that genuinely aren’t his fault. Craig attacking him over the cartel situation made me so uncomfortable because J literally didn’t know. But THEN J goes and leaves Morgan drowning in the river or abandons Nicky emotionally and I’m sitting there like: “I don't know what to think anymore".

Deran honestly might be the one I root for most at this point. He seems one of the only brothers who truly understands how toxic and suffocating the family is. Him wanting a life outside of Smurf’s control makes complete sense to me. Also yes, I’m still invested in him and Adrian 🌚

Also I’ve JUST started seeing young Smurf in the flashbacks and the haircut scene felt like the official birth of Young Smurf™. You can already see the foundations of who she becomes starting to form.

Can't wait to watch more season 4!

Found Unfamiliar on Netflix today and it gives me the same 'job' vibes. Check it out.