Animal Kingdom 5×10 Review: “Relentless”

With only three more episodes left, ‘Relentless’ changed things in a very big way for the Cody men.

Animal Kingdom Season 5 Episode 10, ‘Relentless’, had Deran share his idea with Joshua for the family’s next job. Turns out, Deran wanted to rob the Hawala that Jess was using to send money to Adrian in Indonesia. For those who aren’t familiar, in a simple sense, a Hawala can be described as an illegal Western Union.

While I get that the Codys are criminals, seeing Deran and Joshua agreeing about doing such a job didn’t sit right with me. As far as the fictional world of Animal Kingdom is concerned, I’m okay with the Cody family ripping off rich people. I didn’t want to see them stealing from a low-level criminal who was also helping people send money to their families abroad without going through the proper channels.

I was relieved to see Joshua determining that robbing the Hawala wasn’t worth the risk because that person wasn’t sitting on a lot of cash. The Codys needed to think bigger and that’s why Joshua recommended they rob a Hawala used by rich people to move money for buying paintings, cars, etc. in other countries. Such a plan allowed Frankie to be brought back into the fold. She did warn Craig about going along with such a job, though. Apparently, Hawalas working for the rich don’t play around.

Talking about Frankie, she’s clearly keeping a low profile. She’s definitely in deep trouble. Here’s to hoping she can rely on the Codys to help her out if she offers them a way or two to complete their Hawala-robbing job.

But before the Codys go ahead with the mission, I want Craig to clean up his act. He was a mess during ‘Relentless’ as he tried to cope with Renn leaving with baby Nick. Seeing Craig spend time with a bunch of kids was sad and pathetic. Craig barging into Candice’s house to search for Renn and Nick wasn’t any better. His behavior only vindicated Candice’s opinion of him and why she wanted to take custody of Nick and keep him away from Craig and her daughter Renn.

Seeing Craig get all teary-eyed in front of his brothers and nephew made for an emotional scene, but he will have to help himself to get out of such a situation. Craig needs to not only try and find a way to reach out to Renn but also acknowledge his mistakes if he wants Renn to come back to him with Nick. He can’t continue to control what she can and can’t do to make money.

Craig not staying in Baz’s house because Nick’s belongings were there was similar to how Deran’s unable to stay in the house he bought with Adrian. There are just too many memories for Deran and Craig to address right now.

Another snag in the Cody men’s life came via Pete. It’s revealed that Pete’s been going around telling everyone that they should distance themselves away from the Cody family because they’re under investigation by the DEA. Pope didn’t appreciate how Pete’s statement was hurting the family business. With Pope making it clear that he will hurt Pete’s business in retaliation, I guess the Cody family vs Pete’s crew showdown is inevitable.

‘Relentless’ also allowed Pope and Joshua to bond. Both of them are murderers. However, the difference has to do with Pope being manipulated to kill people by Smurf while Joshua’s willing to kill anyone he deems an obstacle between him and his goals. With the two talking about getting rid of problems, I’m not sure if they were talking about Pete or the scene was supposed to foreshadow a new threat coming their way.

One of the most annoying people for the Cody men has been agent Livengood. But ‘Relentless’ decided to give him a very unexpected fate. I had theorized that Pamela would play a role in getting Livengood off the Cody family’s back. But I was completely wrong. Turns out, it was Chadwick who decided to do a favor to the Codys. Witnessing Chadwick shoot Livengood right in the head mid monologue caught me by surprise. Officer Chadwick wants to keep taking money from the Cody family. He even increased his monthly fee and asked for five thousand dollars for killing Livengood (even though they never asked him to murder Livengood). Chadwick’s a complete mess. Maybe he’s the obstacle that links to the conversation Joshua and Pope had earlier in the episode? Chadwick’s a wildcard the Cody men don’t have the skills to properly handle. They will have to kill him or frame him for a crime somehow.

With Livengood out of the picture, I wonder if Deran will try to contact Adrian and ask him to come back to Oceanside. While I miss those two together, I also feel that Adrian’s better off staying as far away from the Cody family as possible.

Furthermore, with Livengood dead, wouldn’t the Cody men be the top suspects? I say this because Livengood was quite public about his investigation. He recently contacted the Liquor Board to suspend Deran’s bar. It was a petty move, but Livengood still did it.

As for the flashback sequence, I think Max just signed his death warrant. Janine had warned him about threatening her little kids. But ‘Relentless’ showed Max threatening the twins again. I liked little Andrew standing between Max and Julia to protect her. But he’s still a kid. He couldn’t physically fight Max even though he wanted to. I was glad to see little Andrew having enough self-control to not throw a punch at Max.

With Max being the bully of Oceanside and even making Janine pay him a cut for jobs done outside his turf, it’s time for Janine to pulls Max down a few notches. I wouldn’t be surprised if Max ends up being Janine’s first kill. She can’t become the Crime Queen of Oceanside with him around. Let’s see if she gets rid of Max herself or gets Manny or someone else to do it for her.

Some other thoughts and questions:

• The police chase scene with Craig and the cop on a bike dragged on for a bit too long.
• Do you think Renn will be willing to come back to Craig and agree to raise Nick together?
• I’m still waiting for Pamela to play a bigger role in the present. Due to her appearance being hyped up in the promotional campaign, I wasn’t expecting her to disappear for so many episodes. I want to see more of her.
• While I get that most of this episode wasn’t that exciting, I think the ending sequence more than made up for it. 

What did you think of ‘Relentless’? 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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