Animal Kingdom 5×6 Review: “Home Sweet Home”

While ‘Home Sweet Home’ gave us an intense robbery sequence, I couldn’t make myself invested in what Andrew’s going through.

In Animal Kingdom season 5 episode 6, ‘Home Sweet Home’, it was time for the Cody men to do Pamela’s job and steal the safe from Marion’s office. You could tell something was going to go wrong and it sure did. The first issue was Deran deciding to make Renn part of the current job without running it past Craig. While I understood where Deran was coming from when he said Renn could handle herself in tough situations, I do think he should have told Craig about wanting Renn to join.

We, as the audience, can see how much Craig has changed after becoming a father. He doesn’t want Renn to get into any sort of trouble because, as far as Craig’s concerned, Nick needs his mother to be around. In his mind, a kid can adjust if their father goes to jail. But not when the mother’s in jail.

I’m not sure if Deran can’t see the changes fatherhood has caused in Craig’s demeanor or if he’s deliberately trying to ignore them. Also, Deran reminding Craig not to underestimate Renn and how she would have gladly watched her cousins hurt Craig lacked context. Craig left Renn for dead and stole from her. Renn involving her cousins to get revenge made sense during that particular moment seasons ago. Renn and Craig have changed since then even if Deran doesn’t want to acknowledge it.

With Renn’s task involving keeping an eye on Marion inside his skate shop, the Cody men got to work. The plan was to enter the adjacent building and from there cut a hole in the wall to enter Marion’s office, grab the safe, and run. Of course, as I have already mentioned, a lot went wrong for the Codys. I enjoyed how intense the entire sequence ended up being with Marion playing an active role in trying to catch the Codys.

Even though the Codys were able to steal the safe, I wouldn’t be surprised if Marion came after them down the line. Marion and his crew saw their faces. They know it was the Codys who robbed the safe.

Other than that, the heist also showed us a very different side to Deran. He wouldn’t take no for an answer even when Craig and Joshua told him they were going to get caught and should run away. Apparently, Deran’s very worked up over Pamela getting Smurf’s estate. Andrew, Baz, Craig, and Deran were the ones who spent years helping Smurf grow her criminal empire (Joshua came in much later). There was no way Deran was going to sit back and let Pamela have all of it.

While understandable, Deran could have handled everything better. During the job, his arrogant attitude reminded Craig and Joshua of Smurf. Deran didn’t care about Renn getting into trouble. He put Craig and Joshua’s lives at risk, too. Not only that, after the safe was stolen, Deran (without telling Joshua or Craig earlier) decided to change the terms of their agreement with Pamela.

Deran’s marching to the beat of his own drum and that could cause trouble for him very soon. Yes, he’s doing it all to ensure the Codys get to keep Smurf’s estate, but he should be careful not to mess up the already strained relationships he has with Joshua and Craig. At least, try and keep Craig in your corner, Deran.

I do feel Pamela’s quite amused by Deran. Those two have been involved in a tug of war ever since their first encounter. Pamela’s been winning, but ‘Home Sweet Home’ showed Deran taking a win by keeping the safe away from her until she guaranteed handing over Smurf’s estate to the Codys. Whether or not Deran will be able to continue winning against Pamela is something I’m excited to see.

Pamela’s explanation about how she thinks Smurf wrote her name in the will was Smurf’s way to get the Codys to meet Pamela got me thinking. According to Pamela’s assumption, Smurf did all of that to tell her boys there was still someone out there they could turn to for help. Is Pamela going to help Deran with the Adrian situation? What will she ask in return? I would like to know.

The episode ended with Deran going back to Smurf’s house. With him roaming around on his own, I thought someone, out for revenge, was going to attack him. But nopes. I guess the scene showed that while he had Smurf’s house and was thinking of himself as the leader of the family, he was basically all alone.

As far as Joshua’s concerned, I don’t think he cares about who becomes the leader. Even when Smurf was governing the Codys, Joshua was doing his own thing behind her back. So, in my opinion, even if Deran does wear the crown, Joshua’s still going to do what he wants. Officer Chadwick reached out to Joshua to continue Smurf’s deal with the police department. That already puts Joshua a few steps ahead of Deran. And with Joshua asking officer Chadwick to show him the police file on the Codys, I’m looking forward to learning about what he’s planning.

The flashback portion showed a young Smurf realizing she can’t do whatever she pleases while settling in Oceanside. Apparently, a guy named Max Cross was the crime boss in Oceanside. He made it quite clear to Smurf that she needed to play by his rules. The beating he gave to Jake was tough to watch. So much blood.

Though Smurf agreed to Max’s terms to give him 30% from every job she did, I liked how she made him realize that threatening her kids would lead to his death. I can’t wait to see Smurf find a way to take Max down and continue cementing her place as the Queen of Crime in Oceanside.

Coming to the part of ‘Home Sweet Home’ that I didn’t like, Andrew decided to go on a road trip to end his life. Even when he had a gun under his chin, I knew he wasn’t going to kill himself (at least, not yet). So, the entire scene was quite meh!

Seeing Andrew find a cult made me roll my eyes. We have seen Andrew walk down such a path before. He tried to find a sense of calmness by joining a church. And in the fifth season of Animal Kingdom, he comes across a weird cult. I have no idea what the writers plan to do with Andrew. All I can say at this point is that I have my fingers crossed that Andrew’s narrative arc stops being boring in the upcoming episodes. It’s definitely well-acted, but unable to make me feel invested.

Some other thoughts and questions:

• Renn walking up the stairs to Marion’s office while he and his gang were trying to stop the Codys from stealing the safe made no sense to me. I would have scrammed!
• With Renn experiencing an exhilarating rush after helping the Codys with their latest job, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to get Craig to involve her in future heists.
• Am I supposed to care about Cassandra? I’m unsure if all of her interactions with Andrew were even real.
• Poor Julia is not made for the life Smurf wants her kids to have.

What did you think of ‘Home Sweet Home’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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