r/animalkingdom

On Season 1 of Drug Lords on Netflix there’s an episode about the Pettingill Clan, the family that Smurf and the boys are based on.

While rewatching, it's even more apparent to me how little J's uncles care about him. They treat him worse than Lina, not only giving zero fucks about their nephew, but treating him blatantly as a threat instead of a person. It wasn't until season 5 when they started giving him respect, and that was only because they finally realized how badly they'd be screwed without him running things. Throughout the series, they treat him as a co-worker - an underling to boss around - never as family. Only Pope showed him a modicum of affection, and even then he'd immediately switch to being cold to him afterward. Love is continuous, not sporadic.

So, you wonder why J turned on them in the end? He showed them they were just as expendable as they thought he was, that he was truly faking and burying his emotions almost every time they were assholes to him. His mask successfully hid the hatred accumulating within him for his uncles throughout the series, and while they didn't see it, we were constantly shown scenes of J glaring at them whenever a coversation ended. J is a sociopath, but he still could feel love and show vulnerability as shown early on with Nicky. Smurf and his uncles killed that. They always had a chance, and they never took it.

I think it ended in a shootout w the cops idk

I feel like there’s no way he made it out

At first I have to say she bugged me, but the more I watch the show the more I see just how flawless her acting actually is. She absolutely nails the character. Her mannerisms are spot on and although her character is supposed to just be "there" and it has bugged viewers.... She is effortless. And once you see the flashbacks you realise .....She was there as a parallel to Julia and it all makes sense!

She doesn't skip a beat in her acting either.

Season 5 and 6 they seemed to come to an understanding and worked together as a team, co leaders of the Codys. It really warmed my heart to see Julia's boys making up for lost time and kinda bonding until...well, until J remembered, "Oh, right, I am mad ASF that y'all killed my mama." 😭 Do y'all think J and Pope could have made a good team if J wasn't out for revenge?

Maybe this has been discussed before but Smurf seemed particularly disgusted and disappointed in Julia being an addict but enabled the hell out of Craig's drug abuse. To me, it's just another knife she twisted in her daughter because that's how much she hated her for wanting her independence vs staying coddled by mommy from the boys. What do you think?

I was wondering to what extend the family (Smurf and the guys) knew of all the bad things J has done throughout the seasons.

Sleeping with his teacher as a minor and getting her arrested for it
I know that Nicky and Smurf were aware of that he was sleeping with her but I wonder if the others did. And especially wether any of the family, or Nicky for that matter, ever found out about how he set her up to be arrested.

Nicky's drug bender and shooter herself
I don't think any of them ever knew what happened with Nicky. J just told them that Nicky was gone that one morning and they sounded surprised. I wonder if they ever figured out she was drugged out on (Craigs Billy's) heroin and then shot herself with one of Smurfs guns and that J had brought her to the hospital but protected the family by leaving her alone. I am also surprised that J never really brought that up or took form of revenge for that specifically, although it likely contributed to his long con in the finale.

Killing Morgan
Smurf eventually figured it out that it was J, clearly by that scene of her giving J the watch from Baz. But I don't think any of the others ever found out he killed her.

Killing Mia (and Tupi)
The others knew Mia vaguely as being associated to Pete and the fact that her and J had a relationship and that she stayed at the house for a while, but I wonder if they ever found out that she died (and that Pete shot Tupi at the same time) and more importantly that it was J who executed her in cold blood with the approval of Pete nonetheless. And then paid Pete to get his of her body.

Also curious to know what they would have thought of that knowing that betrayed and stole from J (which was his main reason) but also that she was the one who killed Baz.

Killing Smurf
They were all present for this ofcourse but I wonder what they really thought of this. Initially they all seemed not so resentful over it, realizing that Smurf wanted to die either way, but both Deran and Pope clearly were very upset towards J about it in later episodes. Them possibly not knowing that he killed people before and also the fact that J in fact made that promise to Smurf that he would shoot her if she ever lost her mind like that.

Setting up Angela to do drugs
Pope knew J set her up when Angela told her where J took her and then Angela connected the dots herself as well that J was manipulating her the whole time and setting her up to relapse. Wonder what the other guys would have thought about this.

Killing Penny
Ofcourse Pope found out and was disgusted by it...

Here a couple of the main things, but I am sure I am missing out of a lot of stuff.
Things like stealing from Smurf, selling/transferring the buildings, buying that bowling alley and laundromat, how he slept with Olivia to get access to her mother for the festival heist, etc.

Long post, my apologies. I wonder what your takes are on this!?

And what do you think would have changed in the dynamic between them and J if they know more about how ruthless, manipulative and dangerous he really was. Because except Smurf, I think they were in most part oblivious to the fact that he was the most dangerous one of them all.

I know obviously these are all bad people, but the balance was done well where you could kind of feel for them and I always felt for Pope. It seemed like he was trying to find Redemption and was always struggling with who he was. But meeting someone and then kidnapping the father and son, and making the Son go through that trauma just to send them to canada ​​​​​​​​​? And just leaving the father out there? I mean maybe they'll address it later on, but this didn't make much sense ​​​​​

Ok so I just finished Animal Kingdom(I’ll make another post about that after I process everything that happened) and I need more Shawn Hatosy
So please give recommendations of his BEST projects cause I fell in love with him and pope and like I said I need more

O M G. Let me start by saying I’ve tried to stay off of this sub until I’m finished, but god damn this show is fucking amazing! Obviously this is my first watch and I am on s4 episode 9 and holy shit. I have always loved any kind of show that has to do with organized crime. My all time favorite is Sons of Anarchy and next probably the sopranos, but this show may take the fucking cake!!! I thought no other woman could be more manipulative than Gemma Teller, but Smurf may have her beat! I’ve been glued to the TV this whole week!!! Ok I will check back in whenever I finish! I don’t want this to end lol!!! 😂

>!Makes me sad that everyone survived to see more money and old age except Collin. He was a criminal like the rest but he was kind (a lil crazy) and took care of his people. Kinda like his son who's all of our favorite character. Just makes me wish it was him who survived to take care of Andrew and Julia because they would have turned out much better I think. :(!<

Spoilers ahead obviously

The Animal Kingdom finale was fantastic. Even though I think the show had it slow moments after Smurf died I think it stayed one of the most consistent TV shows of all time and my opinion, and that finale was the greatest episode of the show and easily in my top three finales with breaking bad and snowfall.. I hated but loved J, while I feel his pain and reasoning for his mom, Darren and Craig really weren’t old enough to see what Smurf put her through, pope should have did more,, but he realized that when he pulled J out of the pool.

The entire episode was great. I loved the breakout scene, the police shootout, Craig and Darren‘s final scene, pope going back to the house and tying J up. It was all perfect. I also loved how Jay tried to lie up until the very end pretty much saying he had heat and he was going to come find them and Pope just shutting that shit down cause I was sick of the lies at this point too, and then he finally for the first time in the entire series told them how he really felt that they deserved it. Pope‘s initial reaction of anger and pushing him in the pool, but then the flashback of how Julia asked for help and how he felt remorseful and pulled J back out of the pool was perfect and made perfect sense even if I wished pope left J to die and survived the gunshot and lived a happy life lol. That’s just my pope preference though.

But overall fantastic show easily in my top three. And easily one of the most consistent shows of all time.

I spent 2 months watching animal kingdom to be widely devastated by the finale. So many unanswered questions. Still a solid show, but I wanted conclusions </3.

Edit: what do you think happened to Deran?

Yes, she is cold, narcissistic, uninviting & basically a whole hot mess.

As I get deeper into the episodes, I like her more. That may just be the hoodrat in me. Don’t call the cops, don’t snitch are words I’ve lived by having a father who’s affiliated with certain mafia affairs.

Do I think she’s right??? NO.
Do I think she puts her family before anyone and anything? Yes.

It may just be me, but Pope is the only one who shows empathy. Did he do disgusting things in life? YES. Now, I’m only at the end of season two. Being a parent is big, because mine weren’t and I am the best parent I know, even after overcoming drug addiction, molestation, growing up without a mom and dad, jail. It made me better. I feel Pope hates himself and wants so badly to change, but his ‘mom’ fucked him up so badly.

Lost track of how many times I have watched it now, and every single time I say out loud "Just wouldn't happen" Every time Lucy does not kill Pope.

Lucy was portrayed as no nonsense higher up in a Mexican "gang".... Her brother was killed and she had pope in her home.

There is absolutely NO reason she keeps pope alive and no way the person they portrayed her as would either. It's just one of many things that have bugged me in this show. But still love it regardless.

Rant over ! 😉

When I first watched season 3 I thought the writers were setting us up for Pope and Lucy to become involved now that Baz was dead. From season 2 we are shown they don't get along but that almost seems to make writers more eager to bring people together like enemies to lovers lite. I figured we were going from antagonistic to having them find common ground with grief and wanting justice for Baz as a set up for a relationship of some sort. I didn't know if I wanted it to go that way but based on tropes and general tv writing trends I thought that was what they were setting up. When it didn't go that way I just shrugged and moved on.

Now Im rewatching season 3.and I can't help wondering how it might have worked if the writers did pursue a romantic or physical relationship between the two and I find myself thinking it could have been a great thing for the show. It would have given something more for Pope's character, Lucy already had ties and connections to Lena so they could have worked that into Pope stepping up as her carer and living in the house where both Lucy and Cath had lived with Baz, it would have made things messier when Lucy found the guy saying Smurf killed Baz leading to them falling out and everything going to shit once Smurf took her brother. It also would have given reason for fans to have more of a reaction when Smurf had her killed later on unlike canon where her part was clearly done by then. It would have also played well with the dynamic and confrontation set up between Smurf and Lucy given Smurf resented her relationship with Baz and now her she is a threat to her relationship with Pope which is already not in a good place. Also given how the show loved playing with how messed up they all are, Pope getting together with what is essentially his brother's widow after he killed his first "wife" who he was in love with and slept with in the past? Yeah, that seems in line with the themes and messiness they liked for the character.

To be clear. I don't think in any way is this canon. This is just something that's been turning around in my head and I have no one who watched the show to discuss it with so I thought I would post here to see if anyone had any thought on it as a direction the show could have gone but didn't.