Edie Falco Comes to Kingstown

Welcome back to Kingstown, friends! Don't forget to wear a jacket because it's always cold and gray here. You may want to carry some cigarettes and snacks with you to pass on to your many friends and relatives who are no doubt either incarcerated in Kingstown Jail or working there. Yes, and it would be helpful if you could remind us of your gang affiliation every time you come back to town. Russian mafia? Aryan Brotherhood? Colombian? Creep? Police officer? Some combination of the above?

As you remember, last time we were hereThere was major bloodshed in the city. Towards the end Mayor of Kingstownthird seasonwe saw the deaths of prison guard Karim, feuding Russian mafia bosses Constantine and Milo, and former prostitute Iris – the latter was the pet recovery project of unofficial “Mayor of Kingstown” Mike McLuskey (Jeremy Renner). The season also ended with Mike's cop brother Kyle (Taylor Handley) being taken into the custody of ADA Evelyn Foley (Necar Zadegan) after he shot and killed Robert Sawyer (Hamish Allan-Hadley), a fellow officer notorious for being violent towards both criminals and civilians. Last year a lot of bodies fell. Many pieces were removed from the board.

So how does the show recover? Firstly, by replenishing the cast.

Mayor of Kingstown is the type of show where every episode is either excitingly action-packed or subdued and expository. The season four premiere, “Going Around the Mountain,” is mostly action-free, save for a few brief flashes of violence. The show's head writer, Dave Erickson, is primarily concerned with introducing all the new faces, as well as telling us what the old ones have been up to since the Season 3 finale.

The most high-profile newcomer will be Edie Falco, a four-time Emmy Award winner for leading actress. Falco plays Nina Hobbs, the prison's new matron, a fervent Christian with a reputation for fixing “broken institutions.” She makes it clear early and often that she has little respect for the way things were done before she arrived. She doesn't appreciate Carney (Lane Garrison), the main link between the prisoners and Mike. She also doesn't think she needs Mike to help her stay on top of Kingstown's various rivals.

Unsurprisingly, Falco makes a strong first impression as Hobbs with her no-nonsense attitude and effortless religiosity. (When Carney tries to insist that he has no lasting loyalty to Kareem because “you can't be loyal to a dead man,” Hobbs quickly replies, “Tell that to Jesus.”) And despite the overall slow pace of this episode, I do think it gets the prison storylines of season four off to a good start.

To begin with, Rafael (D. Smoke), back behind bars after escaping last season – and having failed to kill legendary white supremacist Merle Callahan (Richard Brake) during his time on freedom – immediately begins to fight the Colombian gangs who have taken over the drug trade in prison and dictate unfavorable conditions for crips. It's Hobbs' first day and trouble is already brewing.

But the more promising drama involves Kyle, who in this episode begins serving time in prison for Robert's murder. Husgoe isn't the friendliest place for ex-cops, even under normal circumstances, and while Hobbs promises Mike that she'll “protect Kyle like I protect all of my charges,” she's made that task more difficult by relieving Carney of many of his responsibilities. Indeed, on Kyle's first day – the first time he goes to his cell – he is beaten by a vengeful cellmate. He is then stuck in a cell next to Merle, who advises him to keep his mouth shut and refuse treatment.

Hobbs told Mike that “the violence diminishes like sauce wherever I serve it.” Considering that chefs reduce the amount of sauces to enhance their flavor, it seems she is right.

We don't have an exact figure for how much time has passed since season three, but at one point KPD Lieutenant Ian Ferguson (Hugh Dillon) said it had been a month since he put Iris on the bus out of town, so let's assume that's about it. In the month (almost) that Mike has assigned the Crips to control most of the city's crime, things have been, in the words of gang leader Bunny Washington (Toby Bamtef), “pretty quiet.” Even when Mike walks into Aryan Kitchen, the white gang seems content with the current drug trade because “we've got our corners, we're making a buck.”

Instead, since we've been gone, the real problem has been on the law enforcement side. His former police brothers treated Kyle as a hero because he refused to tell the media or prosecutors anything about Robert, no matter how much Evelyn pressured him. None of this sat well with Robert, who is currently suspended from duty, lying low and fuming at both Kyle and Evelyn. Talking to Ian about Kyle, Robert hisses, “He's shooting at me and I'm a damn bad guy?” As for Evelyn, Ian admits that she poses a problem that Mike stubbornly refuses to solve, but that maybe a crazed vigilante like Robert can handle it. (“Just saying.”)

Mike is also not very happy with Evelyn, although she treated Kyle leniently, reducing his sentence to six months behind bars. Most of this episode focuses on Kyle's last day of freedom before he goes to jail and promptly gets his ass kicked. As Kyle bids farewell to the outside world, he makes his wife Tracy (Nishi Munshi) a promise that people should never make on crime shows: once he's done his time, they'll sell the house, leave Kingstown, and live happily ever after somewhere far, far away. Something tells me that future circumstances will complicate this plan.

In a similar vein, there's a poignant moment between Mike and Kyle when Mike gives him hard-won advice about serving time: “Don't become one to survive.” This contradicts what their mother Mariam told Mike earlier. He left. She ordered him to do whatever it took to get out alive – and she never forgave him for what he became. I don't know what Merle has planned for Kyle, but I don't think the boy can spend the next six months cowering quietly in his cell.

There are two more new ones Mayor of Kingstown The regulars introduced this week, neither of whom get much screen time, but both are promising characters played by amazing actors. Laura Benanti plays Cindy Stevens, the new guard about whom we only know two things so far: that she's a loving mother to some very sweet children, and that she'll spend her days surrounded by Kingstown's worst criminals (plus Kyle).

There's also Frank Moses, played by the great Lennie James. He begins the episode with a monologue about the coin's composition and history, just before placing the coin on the train tracks, next to the bound bodies of four Russian mobsters. The train roars past, cutting off the criminals' heads – and we don't see Frank anymore. However, the episode ends with Bunny's motorcade being attacked by unknown assailants, possibly working for the Colombians… or Frank.

Who is Frank? Mike describes him as “the devil we don't know” and Bunny suggests that he “draws eyes to draw eyes.” He's new in town and will probably be here for a while. I hope he brought mittens with him.

• Ian's comment about it being a month since he said goodbye to Iris came in response to the news of her overdose that had just reached the Kingstown Police Station. At this point, Ian is hesitant to tell Mike about this. I'm looking forward to seeing him do it, because I have to admit, I get a perverse pleasure from the scenes where the man who thinks he controls Kingstown finds that one of his master plans has failed yet again.

• Speaking of Mike and his love for saving lost souls, there is a surprise scene in this episode where he finds an unresponsive woman prostrate on the street. Nothing more will come of this. Something will definitely happen.

• Once again welcome to our Mayor of Kingstown coating! I find this show fascinating, both in the way it follows Taylor Sheridan's model of television storytelling – creeping along for weeks and then suddenly pushing the story to brutal overload – but even more so in the way it diverges. Show co-creator Hugh Dillon and current showrunner Erickson have at times demonstrated an ability to weave their storylines tightly together, creating truly tense and exciting moments that make the lull worth sitting through. We hope there will be more of this in season four.