Animal Kingdom Recap: [Spoiler] 'Rises From the Grave' to Fire Up Pope

Lenny Kravitz called it when he sang that it ain’t over till it’s over, ’cause we sure thought that Animal Kingdom’s Pope was as good as done for. But a visit from a “ghost” in Sunday’s episode seemed to restore his lust for life.

In the especially flashback-filled “Hit and Run,” we followed the erstwhile Andrew staking out a bank to rob with Baz (Scott Speedman, back in action). Rather than just focus on the job at hand, Catherine’s boyfriend called his “brother” on leaving flowers in her car and told him not to be a weirdo. In turn, Pope argued that Cath deserved better than a serial cheater like Baz.

Then the actual robbery went so far south that Baz had to make his getaway solo, leaving Pope to get busted and sent up the river. (You’ll recall that he’d only just been paroled in the series’ premiere.) At least Baz felt bad about that. In the week’s 1990s rewind, he expressed no remorse whatsoever for getting caught by Julia while screwing another girl.

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Off that upset, Smurf’s only daughter confided in her twin brother, who assured her that she deserved better and then… Aw, jeez, no. Pope kissed Julia. “Don’t be a weirdo,” she exclaimed, as freaked as you’d expect. Breaking down, poor Andrew cried that he knew she didn’t think there was anything wrong with him, “but there is.”

Then, as the hour neared its conclusion, Pope was visited in solitary by a (likely drug-induced) vision of Baz, who refused to let him take upon himself the weight of Catherine’s murder. That had been Smurf, just like Baz’s murder had been Smurf, and so had Julia’s, hers just took longer.  When Baz had left Pope to get popped, “you took all that s—t for all of us,” he said. “You paid. You don’t belong here.” Seemingly inspired, once Baz was gone, Pope asked to make a phone call.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS… | Deran paid off dad Billy (Denis Leary) for intel and a contact to help bust Pope out of jail. While Craig made plans to relocate to Singapore, Deran charted a course for Indonesia. (Hey, Adrian!) Sweetly, Deran intended to take Pope with him, at least until he decided where he wanted to be. Having informed husband Noah about J, Penny basically agreed to be his kept woman. And as Craig and Deran marveled at how much work J had done, setting up and now liquidating their assets, J looked more and more — to me, anyway! — like he was totally going to screw them over.

What do you think? Does J have a double-cross in the works? Will he order a hit on Pope to see it to fruition? Hit the comments.

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