TV REVIEW: Graceland’s “The Unlucky One” AKA The Day from Hell

Last week Graceland had its strongest episode of the season, showing us the surprise and drama we grew to expect last season. The latest installment shows us how far Paige will go to save the Tinker Bells and how far Mike will go to save Paige. “The Unlucky One” would have been more appropriately titled “The Unlucky Ones” because everyone is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Let’s take a look.

The episode begins with Mike holding bus depot boss, Lawrence, in a safe house. Bad guy is spilling the beans on how the bus operation worked. He says he doesn’t know about the girls and that whole sex trade operation. “How did you know we were coming?” asks Mike.  Lawrence says he got a call, no name. Mike is more convinced that Solano’s got someone on the inside. He’s has a “guardian angel” in law enforcement.

Jessica, Mike’s kind of girlfriend, is still in Graceland, happy with the bus takedown. Mike’s not so thrilled knowing that they have a mole. She asks him come back to DC. He says he’ll think about it and she seems strangely okay with that less than enthused response. Mike, you’re not going anywhere.

Paige is undercover posing as the Russian girl used as a drug mule now caught up in a sex trafficking operation. Luck is not on her side tonight – she’s sprawled on an examination table, stripped naked, photographed, lined up to be sold to a creepy guy in a suit, and then forced to watch bad TV with a bunch of other trapped girls. The one highlight? She finds her Tinker Bell, Lena.

Photo by: Jeff Daly/USA Network

Jakes calls Charlie from jail telling her he lost Paige. Mike is losing it ready to pull Jakes’ dreads out one by one. He tells D.J. it’s on him if they don’t find Paige. Briggs and Charlie figure out that Paige went in as the dead Russian girl from last week.

Mike will do about anything to get Paige back. He tells Briggs he needs his help getting info out of the bus guy. Paul pours booze on the Lawrence’s towel covered face in an vodka-boarding torture move. The guy agrees to call and set up a girl purchasing excursion. Hang on, Paige. The boys are on their way to buy you.

Paige and Lena make a run for it with Paige being clubbed in the leg before she can escape. Add that to her bad day. She’s still wondering where the heck Jakes is.

Mike goes in as the buyer even though he looks twelve. He did strap on a fancy suit so maybe he looks more like thirteen and a half. He’s led to where the girls are being held and starts questioning the boss as to not draw suspicion. He purchases Paige but she refuses to go with him and leave her Tinker Bell. She’s forced to leave kicking and screaming.

Mike tells her he needs the sex trafficking ring to continue so it can lead him to Carlito Solano. “Give me a couple of days, then I’ll shut the whole place down. You have my word,” he tells her.

She says, “Your word is shit.” So true, Paige.

Paige makes it back to Graceland with hugs all around. Jakes gets a stink eye instead. Where the heck were you, dude?

Mike releases Lawrence telling him to get out of town, do not pass Go, and do not collect $200. Bus depot boss takes the passport and money, ready to skedaddle. Later, Lawrence is found dead in his house in an apparent gang hit by Solano. More on that in a minute.

Briggs and Charlie finally talk and share a few moments of screen time. Did this episode seem particularly light in the Briggs and Chuck scenes? What about this whole season? I miss my dysfunctional pair! Charlie asks Paul how he got the intel out of Lawrence?

“I broke him. I poured his demons right down his throat,” he admits.

Briggs asks, “Do you hate me?”

Charlie answers,  “No.” She adds, “I can’t forgive you for what I don’t know.”

Surprise, surprise (not really), Mike tells Jess he’s staying at Graceland. She warns that if he doesn’t come back they’re done. He’s fine with it almost saying don’t let the door hit you, sweetie.

Pictured: Daniel Sunjata as Paul Briggs — (Photo by: Jeff Daly/USA Network)

Mike and Briggs have a heart to heart with Mike admitting that DC isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Mike gets a call informing him that Lawrence is dead, killed at his house. We meet Detective Sid Markham of the gang task force who says it was a gang hit, probably Solano.

Jakes finally apologizes to Paige, saying there’s nothing he can say to make it right. He gives Paige a broken wind up musical ballerina that was his mom’s. They cry it out, both in a desperate spot – Paige has lost Lena and Jakes has lost his son. Paige asks if they’re not fighting for Lena then who are they fighting for? Jakes has no answer other than his tears.

In the final scene, Mike tells Briggs he knows who the mole is. It’s Detective Markham, the gang unit guy. He recognizes him from the blown barrel night and he could “see it in his eyes.”

Graceland is picking up momentum as we reach the mid point in its sophomore season. The buses running drugs storyline has morphed into a sex trafficking operation that we care much more about. Carlito was shown as one crazy character last week, a villain we can finally sink our teeth into. What did you think about “The Unlucky One” and its lack of Briggs and Charlie?

Wow, did I mention Johnny once? After last week’s Carlito kiss, you’d think JT would be front and center. Nope, he was nonexistent in this one. Let’s see what happens next week when Solano shows up to wreak a little more Johnny havoc.

Graceland airs Wednesdays on USA at 10 p.m.