'Mayor of Kingstown' Episode 6 Recap & Ending Explained: Bunny Breaks Bad

He's done it now. Tobi Bamtefa's fan-favorite Crip gang leader, Bunny Washington, completes his turn to the dark side in Mayor of Kingstown Episode 6, "Left With the Nose." After being beaten, broken, and thrown in solitary confinement, the onetime buoyant optimist and friend to Jeremy Renner's Mike McLusky strikes back at the corrupt legal system that's swallowed whole communities of people in Kingstown. Directed by last week's helmer Guy Ferland, the episode is a testament to the show's unique ability to comment on the big-picture ills of the carceral state while zeroing in on the tiny, minute-by-minute actions made by its perpetrators and victims.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for 'Mayor of Kingstown' Season 2, Episode 6, "Left With the Nose"

Bloods and Crips Unite in Anchor Bay

The episode opens with a nervous close-up of Mike in a swanky, dimly-lit elevator. It's a time-honored thriller motif, and it makes clear that our outlaw mayor is being dragged into the high-stakes game of corporate intrigue. We learn that Warwick Group, which operates Anchor Bay and other private prisons in Kingstown, is basically using inmates as slave labor. They're paid just sixteen cents per day for their contract work, filling Warwick's pockets and enabling the behemoth to lobby on behalf of privatization. Mike cuts a deal with Warwick big-shot Wendy (American Gigolo's Sandrine Holt): If she can press the D.A. to sign Bunny's release papers, Mike will owe her a debt that she can collect whenever. 

Meanwhile, Anchor Bay has descended into chaos, and it looks like the population is strictly split along racial lines. The AB (Aryan Brotherhood) runs the Yard, and the prison guards are in their pocket. We learn that last episode's killing of the Mexican leader Luis, which Big Hush participated in, was sanctioned by the Brotherhood in an ongoing attempt to lower the number of Black and Hispanic inmates. With the Whites fully in control, Crip generals Raphael (D Smoke) and Big Hush (Jock McKissic) have allied with the Bloods' leader Dedrick (Marcus Brandon) and his young general. The four men are playing cards in the cafeteria when corrupt CO Davidson (Matt Gerald) uncuffs a member of the Brotherhood, who then stabs Dedrick's general to death. 

 

A Shocking Twist Alters the Balance of Power

Things aren't looking so good for Team Mike on the outside, either. In the depths of his aimless unemployment, Kyle (Taylor Handley) is keeping busy by manically building aluminum sheds in Mariam's backyard. Meanwhile, expert marksman Robert (Hamish Allan-Headley) has received a "heart attack letter" from the District Attorney's office stating that he's being investigated for his S.W.A.T. team's actions during last season's riot. Robert's military-grade team of sharpshooters stopped the mayhem from inside the prison, rescuing Ian and Kyle along the way. But the Department of Corrections needs someone's head to roll for the sheer number of inmates killed during the ordeal, and one of Robert's men could have flipped for a favorable deal with the D.A. 

In a shocking twist, Kyle was the masked burglar who swiped the bonds from the police station last episode without telling Mike or Stevie beforehand. It was totally reckless, but the bonds are the only leverage Mike has at this point. The brothers head to Davidson's home to get the corrupt CO to back off Bunny and stop pushing the scale to the Brotherhood's benefit. Davidson refuses and Kyle goes berserk, pistol whipping him and threatening to kill him if he doesn't comply. Davidson thought Mike was an ally of the Brotherhood, referring to Mike's allegiance with the Whites back when he was incarcerated. "Well you thought f****** wrong," Mike tells him. 

Kyle stumbles home drunk that night, late for his strategy session with Ian. He's doing a terrible job feigning sobriety, and Mariam (Dianne Wiest) knows he's gone off the deep end. She need only look at the three completely unnecessary sheds in her backyard to know that her brightest, youngest son is self-destructing.

 

Mike Confronts the D.A.

In a meeting at the prison, Mike assures Bunny (Tobi Bamtefa) that he's making the move to secure his release before the day is out, and Bunny just needs to keep it quiet inside the prison. But Bunny has taken matters into his own hands: There was a mark on Mike, and Bunny convinced whomever wanted the mayor killed to target someone else. He won't tell Mike who's wearing the kill order now, and the ball is already rolling. Meanwhile, the Tent City inmate that Kareem (Michael Beach) beat up has died, and he and Carney (Lane Garrison) are hoping to sweep his medical records (which show immense, unaccounted-for internal organ damage) under the rug. 

Jacob (The Kid 's Jake Schur), one of the inmates in Mariam's juvenile detention class, asks her to speak to Mike on his behalf. Now that he's eighteen years old, Jacob is being transferred to the State Pen. If he can go a year without incident, he'll be released. Problem is, in State Pen, you must be affiliated with one of the gangs in order to protect yourself, and the Whites are trying to recruit him. Jacob doesn't want to join up with the Brotherhood, so he's hoping Mike can either transfer him or secure his protection some other way. 

At long last, we meet the much-discussed D.A. Lockett (Lawrence Adimora), and he's as big a jerk as we thought. Mike crashes a working dinner between Lockett and Assistant D.A. Evelyn (Necar Zadegan), demanding that Lockett sign the release papers for all the gang leaders in Anchor Bay. When the D.A. laughs off the deal he made, Mike reveals that Milo Sunter (aka "the most notorious criminal in Michigan") is at large — a fact that Evelyn hid from Lockett. If he releases Bunny, Gunner, and Dedrick, Mike promises to give the D.A. something (presumably, the bonds) to help capture Milo. If the D.A. refuses, Mike will go to the press with Milo's escape, destroying Lockett's bid for re-election. 

 

Bunny Starts a War

Bunny and Raphael are making license plates in the prison workshop when White leader Gunner (Dylan Kenin) extends an olive branch. The Brotherhood member who killed Dedrick's general in the cafeteria was a lone wolf. Gunner didn't order the hit, so the guy must have cut a deal with the prison guards for some privileges or an early release. "It wasn't just you on that pier," Gunner tells Bunny, referring to Mike's Peace Summit. "If you're making moves to speed things up, we got resources." Suddenly, the rogue AB member's hands are chopped off in a plating machine "accident," and Gunner gives Bunny a knowing look. He wants to join forces with Bunny in order to plot their release, and he arranged the mutilation to prove he can be trusted. 

Mike heads to the Crip rooftop, where one of Bunny's generals tells him, "Castle's intact. Just needs its king back." Just then, Bunny calls from prison to say that the "path's been cleared" for Mike to do his "mayor thing" and secure his release. Their call is intercut with a scene of the D.A. being shot and killed by what looks to be a masked white man. Odds are Gunner was in on Bunny's assassination plan.

 

Theories and Predictions

• The new D.A. (probably Evelyn) will go after the gangs. The king has royally messed up. By assassinating a public figure, Bunny has only brought the full force of the law to his (and all the other gangs') doorstep. Kingstown will crack down on gang-related activities outside, and Evelyn will have no choice but to keep the gang leaders locked up in the wake of Lockett's murder.
• Mike will bail Bunny out. If there's any hope of a peaceful resolution in the remaining four episodes of the season, Mike must come to Bunny's rescue. That could be the way to patch up their relationship, too: Bunny shot himself in the foot by instigating all-out war, and Mayor Mike could clean up the Crip leader's mess.
• Or... Mike's plan worked, and Bunny will walk free next episode. For all we know, the D.A. signed Bunny's release papers just before he was killed. I could see a future where Bunny operates completely without Mike's input as soon as he's back on the outside — a dangerous possibility.
• Mike and Evelyn will team up to catch Milo. As the new D.A., Evelyn will have to prove her stuff, and Milo is the biggest fish she could fry. If Mike helps her get her first score in office, maybe she'll release the gang leaders.
• Milo is planning something big. We've heard time and again that Milo is an evil genius, but we've only really seen the criminal mastermind in action in last season's riot. For now, it seems Milo's Russian mafia has zero presence in Anchor Bay — something Milo may want to change. If the Aryan Brotherhood really is so entrenched in the prison system, Milo's gang could be an ally to the Bloods, Crips, and Mexicans.

New episodes of Mayor of Kingstown premiere Sundays exclusively on Paramount+

READ MORE:  Where is 'Mayor of Kingstown' Filmed? Inside the Crime Drama's Abandoned Prisons and Picturesque Lakes