Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Monday, November 24, 2025
Now Showing: The Crow: Yomi
The Crow: Yomi
Genre: Supernatural/Thriller/Romance
Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Jack Brown
Based on the comic created by James O'Barr
Cast: Mike Faist, Minami Hamabe, Tadanobu Asano, Masatoshi Nagase, Rie Miyazawa, Masaki Okada, Tak Sakaguchi, Emma Appleton
Plot: Jamie Osterberg (Mike Faist) steps off a train in Tokyo, wheeling a suitcase. He arrives on the campus of Seijo University where he is set to work on a graduate degree in mythology. He skips getting settled into his room, instead going straight to the university archive. He studies aged scrolls depicting black-winged crows escorting souls toward a shadowed gate. His Japanese is slightly less than fluent. He calls for assistance. Haruko (Minami Hamabe) enters with a stack of bound texts. She’s quiet and formal, dressed simply. She watches Jamie struggle to interpret a sutra and gently offers the correct reading. He thanks her awkwardly, fumbling a small bow. She nods and leaves him to his work.
In Portland, Oregon, Emily Osterberg (Emma Appleton) cleans her tattoo needles when her phone rings. Her brother Jamie is on the line. She teases him for being obsessed with Japanese ghosts rather than girls. Jamie mentions that he met a cute girl at the archives, so he may not be a total embarrassment.
The next day, Jamie returns to the archive. Haruko is there again. Their conversation begins to extend beyond the scrolls - favorite shrines, ghost stories, childhood fears. She corrects his grammar and he gets flustered.
The two begin to meet outside the archive. They walk side streets lit by vending machines, visit weathered torii gates, and pause at incense altars for reasons neither explains. On a covered train platform, Jamie speaks earnestly, gesturing awkwardly toward her before stopping himself.
At night, Haruko rides the subway alone, clutching her bag. Hendra (Tadanobu Asano). in a dark suit leans near the far door. He watches her reflection in the window. When she looks up, he’s gone.
In the mountains, Haruko’s family home sits amid rice fields and cedar trees. She brings Jamie home over a long weekend. Her father (Masatoshi Nagase) eyes Jamie with caution. Her mother (Rie Miyazawa) offers tea in silence. Haruko says little, but her glances toward Jamie are softer now.
Later that evening, Haruko leads Jamie down a quiet dirt path beyond the rice fields, through a line of willows, until they reach an old, sloped clearing. A single cherry tree sits alone on a hill, petals fluttering in the wind. She tells him she used to come here to hide from the world. Jamie takes off his jacket and spreads it on the ground. They sit together in silence for a long time. Haruko leans into Jamie, resting her head against her shoulder. She begins to unbutton his shirt slowly, carefully. He follows her lead, nervous but unable to look away from her eyes. Under the cherry blossoms, they make love for the first time—tender, quiet, unhurried. When it’s over, they lay in each other's arms, petals drifting down like soft pink snow. Up on the hillside, a man in a black suit watches from the trees. When Haruko looks up suddenly, sensing something, there’s no one there.
The next morning, Jamie joins Haruko's father in the garden. The older man offers him a small carved talisman tied with a red cord. Jamie thanks him. The man doesn’t answer. He just walks away down the path. Haruko emerges from the house and smiles faintly as Jamie holds the charm up to the light.
Rain slashes against the glass of the train window as Jamie and Haruko return to Tokyo. He rests his head on her shoulder. She listens to the rhythm of the rain more than the sound of his voice. That evening, Jamie and Haruko cook dinner in her apartment. They laugh softly as he misreads kanji labels and nearly dumps vinegar into the rice. She corrects him without mockery. Later, as they eat on the floor, she casually locks the sliding glass door and draws the curtain tighter than usual.
Elsewhere in Tokyo, a Yakuza club pulses with red light and smoke. Kaoru (Masaki Okada) sits half-naked in a velvet booth, surrounded by girls and empty glasses. His tattoos gleam under the strobe. Sada (Tak Sakaguchi) steps in and leans down to whisper something.
Haruko leaves for her university job the next morning. Jamie kisses her at the station. She vanishes into the crowd. That night, Jamie walks through a quiet alley carrying food. His phone buzzes—an unread message from Haruko. He doesn’t see the figures closing in behind him. Kaoru moves first, laughing like it’s a game. Sada hits Jamie in the back of the skull with a blackjack wrapped in rosary beads. Jamie drops, stunned but conscious. They drag him into a black van and drive off. Through the haze of pain, Jamie sees two crows following them, hopping between rooftops. He tries to speak but gets a boot to the face. The van pulls into the rear lot of an abandoned onsen on the outskirts of the city. Jamie is dragged through a corridor, blood trailing behind him. When they reach the central bath chamber, Kaoru crouches beside him and pulls out a switchblade. He asks Jamie if he thinks Haruko will cry when Hendra gets his hands on her. Sada and Kaoru dose Jamie in gasoline, slowly and deliberately. Kaoru flicks a match, then puts it out with his fingers, just to watch Jamie flinch. He then lights another and flicks it at Jamie. Jamie screams as the fire takes him.
Haruko wakes in her apartment in a cold sweat. She hears glass shatter down the hall. Before she can react, the front door bursts open. Hendra steps in. She claws at his face and screams. He slaps her once, then carries her out. Inside a desecrated shrine hollowed out beneath a subway line, Haruko is stripped, bathed, and dressed in white by silent attendants in black masks. Her arms are bound. Symbols of Maō - inked eyes, stitched mouths, broken lotus petals - cover the walls. Hendra grabs Haruko by the throat and tells her that his can happen two ways - one with less suffering. He undoes the top button of his shirt, rolls up his sleeves. She spits in his face. Hendra smiles as he wipes the spit away with his fingers and tastes it. He smiles and dismisses the masked attendants. He circles her slowly, explaining that her resistance only feeds the offering. That her body means nothing if it doesn’t first break. That Maō does not accept what comes willingly - he demands purity destroyed. Haruko tries to stand, but he grabs her by the hair and throws her back down. She curses him through gritted teeth as he begins to unfasten his belt. She kicks at him and scratches at his face before he pins her down. Her head turns to the side and a single tear runs down her cheek, mixing with the blood from her lip as Hendra assaults her. When he's done, Hendra presses a dagger deep between Haruko's ribs, watching as she bleeds out. Her corpse lies in the center of a shrine. The assistants return, piercing iron hooks into Hendra's back. Slowly, he is hoisted above her body. Blood begins to drip from the hooks embedded in his flesh. As he bleeds, he chants to Maō. A crow watching from above lets out a pained shriek. Haruko’s eyes snap open. She gasps, but there is no breath - her soul is gone.
The abandoned bathhouse is nothing but blackened structure now. The roof collapsed during the fire. The tile walls are cracked, blistered, open to the sky. Only the stone foundation of the soaking pool remains. A crow lands silently atop a splintered beam. Another joins it. Both stare down into the wreckage. Rain begins to fall. The ash turns to mud. A pale hand pushes through a layer of soot and debris. Jamie’s form emerges slowly from the wreckage - naked, burned, skeletal. He collapses on the edge of the stone pool, gasping. One crow hops closer. Jamie looks at it. It tilts its head. He recognizes something - not with words, but with instinct. He knows what he is. He knows why he’s here. Across the ruins, he finds remnants of discarded clothes and wraps himself in a weathered black coat. He doesn’t remember dying. But he remembers why.
Jamie walks through the Tokyo night in silence. The city doesn’t notice him. He stops in front of a ramen stall. His reflection in the window shows a face somewhere between the living and the dead. He drops to his knees. A crow lands beside him.
Kaoru sits at the bar of a nightclub, spinning a knife between his fingers. Kaoru turns just as Jamie smashes a broken liquor bottle across his face. Kaoru screams, falling back, slashing wildly. Jamie doesn’t flinch. He grabs Kaoru’s head and shoves him face-first into the bar’s hot griddle. Kaoru's face begins to melt as Jamie's holds it against the burning surface. Jamie then drives the broken bottle straight into Kaoru’s throat. A crow watches from a light fixture above.
Emily sits alone in her Portland tattoo studio, closing up for the night. Her phone rings. Jamie's voice comes through the other line. He tells her that he won't be coming back from Japan - he's dead. She doesn't know what to say. Jamie says that he doesn't know how long he has, but that he has to finish something. Emily asks if Jamie is pulling a joke. Jamie hangs up the phone. Emily stare at her phone in disbelief.
Sada leans back in a velvet booth of a bar, flanked by two girls barely in their teens. He feeds one a cherry from his drink. Jamie enters. Wet from the rain. Silent. He grabs a heavy ashtray off a nearby table and smashes it into the bartender’s head without breaking stride. Sada starts to stand, but Jamie knocks him back into the booth, smashing him with the ashtray. The girls scatter. Jamie drags Sada out into the alley behind the bar. Jamie slams Sada's head into a trash bin, demanding to know where Hendra is. Sada chokes out that Hendra is in the Marunouchi district on the top floor of an unfinished tower - Hendra calls it his temple now. Jamie asks what will be waiting for him inside. Sada, spitting blood, mutters, "Hell." Jamie slams Sada's face into the asphalt several more times until there is nothing left but pulp and skull fragments.
Hendra kneels before a statue of Mao. A laptop screen crackles beside him. Surveillance footage loops: Kaoru's body slumped on the floor of the nightclub, jagged bottle sticking out of his throat, blood pooling on the dance floor. Hendra watches it silently, rewinding the moment when Jamie enters the frame over and over again - believing his eyes must be playing tricks on him as Jamie could not still be alive - Mao has not willed it. Across the room, Haruko's body jerks, more marionette than woman. Her skin is pale, her lips colorless. A shimenawa rope hangs around her neck like a leash. Hendra approaches slowly. He whispers that Jamie has returned from the dead, or something else is wearing Jamie’s face. He wonders aloud what it means - perhaps the old gods are testing him. He tells Haruko that the final ceremony will need to happen sooner. That her vessel will not last forever. He strokes her cheek, then tightens the rope slightly with a flick of his fingers, just to watch her blink. He smiles. Hendra turns back to the laptop. He rewinds the footage again.
Jamie stands across from a black monolith of a building rising above Minato. Two crows land on a lamppost beside him. One of the crows caws once, then flies toward the tower. Jamie follows. Jamie takes the elevator to the penthouse level. He takes deep breaths on the trip up - thinking back on images of Haruko. When the doors open, he finds a gutted penthouse taken over by Hendra's temple to Mao. Jamie first sees Haruko, eyes open but lifeless. Hendra then steps out of the shadows, ceremonial hooks already embedded into his flesh. His body is covered in self-inflicted cuts, each one shaped to mimic the crow’s wings. He smiles when he sees Jamie, telling him that he made it just in time for Mao to accept his offering. Jamie doesn't flinch. The crow screeches from above. Jamie slowly moves closer, eyes scanning his surroundings. He circles Hendra in a silent rage. Hendra moves toward Haruko. Her head twitches slightly as she recognizes Jamie's presence, but there's still not emotion in her face. Hendra tells Jamie that Haruko has already been offered to Mao - her soul was shattered in the ritual, just her shell remains, beautiful as it may be. Hendra tells Jamie that he will now offer him to Mao as well. Jamie moves without warning, lunging across the space and tackling Hendra into a pillar. Hendra draws ceremonial dagger, swinging it at Jamie, grazing his ribs. Jamie barely reacts. He hurls Hendra into the altar, snapping part of it in half. Candles scatter, catching fire to the space. Hendra rises. He pulls two hooked chains down from the ceiling frame above and swings them like whips, slashing the air. One catches Jamie's shoulder, ripping through his jacket and sticking into his dead flesh. Hendra swings the other, but James grabs the chain in mid-air and yanks, pulling Hendra off his feet. Jamie pounces on Hendra, punching with brutality - nose, jaw, temple. Blood spatters onto the floor. The fire spreads to the walls and ceiling of the penthouse. Hendra notices his dagger on the ground nearby. He drives it into Jamie's neck - deep enough that it should kill any normal man. Cold blood oozes from Jamie's neck. Jamie pulls the dagger from his own next and drives it straight into Hendra's chest - again and again. Hendra coughs out that Jamie is too late - Mao is already coming. Jamie stands and walks to Haruko. He breaks her free from her bonds. Her lips move slightly - as if trying to form his name, but no sound comes out. Jamie kisses Haruko's forehead. Then he gently grips her chin, steadying her head, and slides the blade of Hendra’s dagger into the base of her skull. Her limbs jolt once, then go still. Jamie then lifts Harukos' lifeless body and takes her out of the penthouse. Behind them, the fire consumes Hendra's body and his altar to Mao.
The sun has risen by the time Jamie climbs a winding mountain trail, Haruko's lifeless body cradled in her arms. Cherry blossoms drift down the from the trees lining the narrow path. At the top of the hill, he arrives at Haruko's family home. Her mother and father stand outside, already awake. Her mother gasps at the sight. Her father steps forward. Jamie kneels and offers Haruko’s body to them. Her mother drops to her knees, sobbing. Her father lowers his head and accepts her without question, holding Haruko's body like she is a child again. Jamie turns to go. Jamie stops beneath the blooming sakura tree where he and Haruko once made love. He looks up at the petals drifting down like snow. He digs into the earth with his bare hands, not stopping until he has dug a hole big enough for a grave. Jamie lowers himself into it. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks up one last time as petals fall across his face. Both crows who have followed Jamie perch in the tree above, one on each side of the tree's trunk, watching over Jamie's body like sentinels.
Top 10 Japan-Set Films
Sherman J. Pearson here for another Top 10. With The Crow: Yomi - a new Japan-set Crow story - due out this round, I thought it could be interesting to take a look at other films in LRF's history set in Japan. I haven't had a chance to view The Crow: Yomi yet, so I couldn't consider it here. Also, I did only include films with multiple scenes set in Japan - so as much as I love Believe It or Not! I did not include it since it only featured one scene in Japan.
Top 10 Japan-Set Films
10. Robopocalypse
9. Fractured
8. Tamahagane
7. Shoe Dog
6. Tokyo Rose
5. Gamera
4. Shogun
3. Elektra
2. Hiroshima
1. To the White Sea
Sunday, November 23, 2025
HISTORY LESSON (SEASON 9)
Welcome to History Lesson, where we take a closer look at the movies that dare to tackle real-life events with varying levels of accuracy, drama, and WTF casting choices. These films promise to educate and entertain, but more often than not, they rewrite history with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. We’ll be your guide through the land of miscast biopics, dramatic embellishments, and historical “inspired-by” liberties, breaking down whether these flicks are Golden Reel Award-worthy masterpieces or just a big-budget Wikipedia summary. Either way, it’s more fun than your high school history class—and there’s popcorn.
This time around we will take a look at Season 9's fact-based slate....
HISTORY LESSON: OUTLAW COUNTRY
Director David Michôd takes on the legend of Jesse James in Outlaw Country, a Western where history checks its facts at the saloon door. Garrett Hedlund and Taylor Kitsch star as Jesse and Frank James, a pair of Confederate sharpshooters turned bank-robbing folk heroes who shoot first and let their charm do the rest. Dakota Johnson plays Zee, Jesse’s love interest with a rifle as sharp as her wit, while Jude Law’s Allan Pinkerton and Sean Bridgers’ railroad tycoon Gabriel Raines chew scenery as the villains trying to tame the James-Younger Gang’s wild streak. From the first train heist to the gang’s dramatic split, the movie gallops through a stylized version of history with all the subtlety of a runaway horse.
Speaking of history, Outlaw Country doesn’t just take liberties.... it commandeers them like a stagecoach. The James-Younger Gang did pull off daring robberies, but the whole “first daylight bank robbery in history” bit? Let’s just say history books might politely disagree. And while Pinkerton probably wasn’t thrilled with Jesse James, the film’s version of events - complete with naked tree-tying and cannonballs stopping trains - feels more like a fever dream than a fact-check. Still, with shootouts, sibling rivalries, and just enough historical grounding to justify the cowboy hats, Outlaw Country delivers exactly what it promises: a rip-roaring, highly fictionalized outlaw adventure that’s as entertaining as it is historically questionable.
HISTORY LESSON: ONE FOR THE AGES
One for the Ages is a gentle, tear-streaked salute to one of the greatest athletes of all time that seems determined to go down easy - even if its subject, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, never did anything the easy way. Natalie Portman gives a measured, awards-season-calibrated performance as Babe, radiating dignity, humility, and just enough grit to keep the movie’s Hallmarky sheen from drowning the drama. The film covers the final years of Zaharias’s life, centering on her comeback from terminal cancer to win the 1954 U.S. Women's Open with a colostomy bag strapped to her side - a real and jaw-droppingly badass historical fact that director Lasse Hallström handles with tasteful restraint and perhaps a little too much soft lighting.
The film’s biggest asset is its quiet emotional maturity; its biggest liability is its resistance to fully engage with the more complicated and radical elements of Babe’s life. The possible romantic relationship between Babe and Betty Dodd (Saoirse Ronan) is hinted at with just enough plausible deniability to keep studio PR teams happy, while Vince Vaughn’s George Zaharias gets a few too many warm-husband-redemption beats for someone who mostly exists to complain about optics. Florence Pugh as Mickey Wright adds charm but is relegated to the stock role of respectful rival. Still, the film's heart is in the right place - even if it plays more like a respectfully sanitized eulogy than a gutsy portrait of a trailblazing icon who would’ve scoffed at all this restraint.
Release: Full Custody
Full Custody
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: David Gordon Green
Writer: John Malone
Cast: Shane Gillis, Melanie Lynskey, Vale Cooper, Haley Joel Osment, Marin Ireland, Chi McBride, Laurie Metcalf, Tim Baltz
Budget: $20,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $71,997,290
Foreign Box Office: $20,219,000
Total Profit: $45,795,333
Reaction: The starring debut of Shane Gillis couldn't have gone better as far as the studio is concerned - with a lower budget and strong domestic box office, not doubt a result of Gillis' large, loyal fanbase.
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Rated R for language, sexual content, and thematic elements.
Saturday, November 22, 2025
Now Showing: Full Custody
Full Custody
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: David Gordon Green
Writer: John Malone
Cast: Shane Gillis, Melanie Lynskey, Vale Cooper, Haley Joel Osment, Marin Ireland, Chi McBride, Laurie Metcalf, Tim Baltz
Plot: Jimmy McCabe (Shane Gillis) wakes up in a recliner. His phone alarm blares from across the room. After a quick swig of leftover warm beer from the night before, he grabs his tool belt and lumbers out the door. In the work van, his buddy Lenny (Haley Joel Osment) is already lighting a cigarette and bitching about the site foreman screwing up the supply order again. They pull up to the jobsite - an unfinished strip mall. During their first of many smoke breaks, Jimmy and Lenny sit in the back of the van eating gas station sandwiches. Lenny begins ranting about a guy who brought cordless tools to a wired job. Jimmy's phone rings - unknown number. Lenny encourages him to answer it to mess with the scammer on the other end. Lenny eggs Jimmy on, but the call turns out to be a serious one. Jimmy's sister Tina has overdosed again and has been admitted to court-ordered rehab. Her daughter, Sadie, needs a guardian. Jimmy thinks there must be a mistake - surely he can't be at the top of the list to take custody.
Later, in court, Jimmy stands before a judge looking like he dressed in the dark. Tina (Marin Ireland) appears via video call from rehab, barely upright. She tells the judge that Jimmy's the only family she has left in town. Jimmy reluctantly signs the custody paperwork, trying to joke his way through the discomfort. Afterward, Jimmy waits at Children Protective Services, slouched and restless. A case worker, Darren (Tim Baltz), finally appears, apologetic for making Jimmy wait. Sadie (Vale Cooper) enters. Sadie barely remembers Jimmy. She stares at him like she's trying to figure out if this is a punishment or a test. Darren hands over a folder and walks through basic instructions - school starts tomorrow, appointments are listed, call if anything serious comes up. Out in the parking lot, Jimmy unlocks the truck. Jimmy quickly brushes fast food wrappers on the floor, clearing a seat for Sadie. Darren jogs up, reminding Jimmy about the school intake meeting first thing in the morning. Jimmy gives a half-assed salute and drives off.
Jimmy parks crooked in the school parking lot and finishes brushing donut crumbs off his shirt. Sadie's sitting silently in the passenger seat. Inside, they meet Sadie's new 5th grade teacher - Angela Morgan (Melanie Lynskey). She's warm but direct, offering Sadie a smile and welcoming her to the class. Jimmy tries to charm her with a bad joke about skipping 5th grade because he couldn't pass it twice. Angela doesn't laugh, instead asking Jimmy if Sadie has any learning or behavior plans. Jimmy scratches his head, clearly not knowing the answers. He then admits that he's not totally sure what Sadie needs yet, but he's committed to figuring it out. Angela thanks Jimmy for showing up and leads Sadie to her seat.
At home, Jimmy flips through Sadie’s school folder like it’s written in another language. There’s a reading log, a lunch form, and a sheet with a smiley face that says “Important!” in red. He sets it all down and opens a beer. Sadie’s on the couch, doing homework in silence. Jimmy asks if she wants pizza or just some stuff from the freezer that’s been in there since Obama was president. They end up with chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs and a bag of stale pretzels. Jimmy tosses ketchup packets onto her plate like he’s proud. She doesn’t complain, but doesn’t talk either. Later, Jimmy tries to bond by putting on a movie he calls a classic. It’s Road House - Patrick Swayze throwing kicks in a bar while music blares and bodies fly. Jimmy quotes lines before they happen and laughs hard at the throat-ripping scene. Sadie just stares, visibly uncomfortable. After a few minutes, she asks if they can watch something with less punching and nipples. Jimmy grumbles but changes it, mumbling that Swayze was a damn artist. Later, he checks in on her while she’s brushing her teeth. She’s using her finger and hotel toothpaste. Jimmy freezes — he forgot to buy a toothbrush. He offers his, holding it out like a peace treaty. She just closes the door.
Jimmy shows up to Sadie's school fundraiser night, awkward in a wrinkled flannel, clearly unaware there's a business casual expectation. Parents and staff fill the gym. Angela is running the raffle, trying to keep things organized as pleasantly as possible. Jimmy tries to blend in. Principal Fitzgibbons (Chi McBride) asks Jimmy to help draw the raffle numbers. Jimmy makes a joke into the mic about rigging the raffle like the 2020 presidential election that draws some scattered laughter. He accidentally pulls a prize ticket out of the wrong bucket and hands a $100 gift card to a confused kid, sparking a small argument among parents. Angela quickly steps in and takes the mic back. Jimmy slinks off and crushes a juice box like it’s a beer. As the event winds down, Jimmy and Angela cross paths again. He tries to apologize for messing up the raffle. She smirks - it's clear she's both amused and mildly annoyed, which, is practically flirtation.
Later that week, Jimmy tries to make dinner for Sadie - real food, not frozen junk. The sauce explodes, the pasta sticks, and the fire alarm goes off. Sadie helps without being asked, muttering instructions like a tiny Gordon Ramsay. Jimmy listens, then gets overly proud when the spaghetti is even halfway edible. They eat on the couch, watching a cooking show while Jimmy critiques everything - even though he only just learned what al dente means. Sadie laughs for the first time, and Jimmy notices. He tries to ask how school is going, but she shrugs it off. He keeps it light and tells her if she gets straight As, he’ll buy her a PS5 - which she immediately demands in writing. The evening ends with Jimmy tucking her in - not well, but he tries. She lets him. He sits outside her door for a minute after, smiling.
That same night, across town, Angela walks into a small, dim space and locks the door behind her. She changes clothes quickly and efficiently - out of her teacher gear and into sleek, black leather and vinyl. She’s Mistress Andromeda now. Her client waits, eyeing the paddle on the table. Angela’s face is calm, professional. When he stammers about forgetting the usual setup, she cuts him with a flat, practiced tone. The session unfolds with mechanical rhythm. Angela walks him through light punishment and a few lines of dry humiliation, delivered more like observations than insults. When he begins to veer into emotional territory, she pauses and redirects him firmly back toward his punishment - smacking him repeatedly with a paddle.
Jimmy pulls into the school’s pickup lane, clearly late, honking inappropriately as a crossing guard glares. He’s still wearing his work hoodie, dusted with drywall, and has a soda in one hand and a chicken tender in the other. Sadie climbs into the truck with a groan, muttering that he’s embarrassing her again. Before he can respond, Angela walks by, shepherding a line of students toward the buses. Jimmy tries to act casual but shouts her name a little too loud. Angela turns, clearly reluctant to chat but too polite to ignore him. He tells her thanks for not kicking him out of the PTA thing, then awkwardly asks if teachers get some kind of bonus for dealing with idiots like him. As she walks off, Jimmy calls after her that if she ever needs drywall patched, he’s her guy. Angela keeps walking but tosses a half-smile over her shoulder. In the truck, Sadie groans and tells Jimmy to never flirt again in public. Jimmy shrugs, tells her she’s just jealous he still has it, and nearly rear-ends a minivan as they pull away.
Jimmy’s sitting at the kitchen table, half-dressed, eating microwaved taquitos when the doorbell rings. Jimmy opens the door mid-chew to find Darren, the CPS case worker, who steps inside without waiting. Darren's eyes dart across the living room - laundry on the couch, a broken ceiling fan hanging at an angle, a bottle of Gatorade doubling as an ashtray. Jimmy makes a vague effort to kick a pizza box under the coffee table. Darren explains he’s here for a quick check-in and starts asking about Sadie’s daily routine. Jimmy bullshits through answers, claiming she wakes up at 6AM, reads for fun, and brushes her teeth like a damn dentist. Darren raises an eyebrow, clearly not buying it, especially when Sadie wanders into the room wearing pajama pants and eating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Darren gently reminds him that progress will be reviewed soon and that the court wants to see a stable and safe living environment.
Jimmy lounges on the couch, shirtless, eating a lukewarm burrito while a rerun of Cops blares in the background - some shirtless guy on-screen is getting tackled in a Waffle House parking lot while Jimmy eats a gas station burrito. The phone buzzes. It’s Tina. He groans, wipes his hand on his sweatpants, and answers. Tina launches into an erratic, overly upbeat monologue. She swears things are looking up, insisting she’s totally clean. She drops that she’s currently without a place to sleep and just needs a safe landing for a few nights. Jimmy leans his head back, closes his eyes, and mutters that he knew this was coming. He tells her she can crash, but it’s temporary and she better not bring any junkie nonsense into Sadie’s life. Tina brushes it off with vague promises and a mention of how much she misses her daughter.
A loud, erratic knock rattles Jimmy’s door just past midnight. He opens it groggily, and there stands Tina - hollow-eyed and jittery. She immediately begins rambling about how some counselor at the rehab kept judging her aura. Jimmy cuts her off, asks straight-up how she got out and whether the court signed off on it. Tina deflects. Jimmy narrows his eyes - something’s off. Her pupils are huge, she can’t sit still, and she keeps scratching at her arms. He points this out bluntly. She shrugs it off, jokes that it’s just caffeine. Jimmy doesn’t buy it. Sadie peeks out from her room, sleepy and confused. She sees Tina and stiffens. When she sees the condition her mother is in, Sadie quietly backs into her room and shuts the door. Jimmy sees that and tells Tina she needs to leave right now. When she scoffs, he raises his voice for the first time: if she’s using, and she’s here against court orders, she’s risking his custody and he won’t let that happen. He threatens to call the cops. Tina tries to guilt-trip him, whimpering that she’s got nowhere else. Jimmy doesn't flinch and slams the door behind her.
Jimmy and Lenny stare up at the partially disassembled ceiling fan in the living room. The room is quiet - Sadie's already asleep - and they're trying to keep their voices down while arguing about wiring. Lenny's mostly just hanging out, occasionally handing Jimmy the wrong screwdriver. To kill time, he pulls out his phone and scrolls a local sexual classifieds thread, chuckling at the weird ads. Lenny gets distracted by a dominatrix ad - it's a masked woman in latex boots and a corset standing next to a guy in a dog collar. Lenny starts chuckling that he found a woman just Jimmy's type for him and shows him the screen. Jimmy gives the phone a glance and freezes. He grabs the phone. There's something familiar about the woman to him. Then it dawns on him - it's Angela. He knows the picture is definitely Sadie's teacher, but he doesn't tell Lenny. The fan wires spark slightly as Jimmy loses his focus.
Jimmy attends a PTA meeting in the school library. He spots Angela across the room, but struggles to meet her eyes when she greets him. She starts discussing Sadie’s reading scores and a story she wrote about a turtle with depression. Jimmy nods along distractedly - picturing her in her dominatrix outfit from the ad the entire time.
During dinner, Sadie tells Jimmy that a classmate invited her for a sleepover and asks if she can go. Jimmy is thrown and immediately starts rattling off questions - where this girl lives, who her parents are, whether they keep the thermostat at a weird temperature. Sadie assures Jimmy her friend is normal. Jimmy is nervous, so he makes up a fake rule about lava lamps - telling Sadie that it's a red flag if the family owns more than one lava lamp. After Sadie's gone to bed, Jimmy sends Angela a message asking if the classmate's parents seem alright. Angela replies with a friendly thumbs up.
Jimmy’s watching Sadie attempt to glue googly eyes onto a pinecone for school a school project when there’s a knock. He opens the door to find Darren, clipboard in hand. Darren tells Jimmy that he's not there for another inspection - instead he has news. Tina has officially skipped out on rehab and now has a warrant out for her arrest. Darren then adds that Sadie's clearly thriving under Jimmy's care - happy, showing up to school, eating right - and if Jimmy wants it, he’s ready to recommend full custody. Jimmy is clearly taken aback by the news. Darren tells Jimmy to take some time to think it over, but not too much - Sadie deserves stability.
Later that day, Jimmy drives Sadie out to see Nancy McCabe (Laurie Metcalf) - his mom, who Sadie barely knows. Nancy greets them with a bear hug - warm and loud from the first second. She calls Jimmy her baby the second he walks in the house. Sadie watches with mild amusement as her grandma dotes on Jimmy. Nancy tries hard to not badmouth Tina in front of Sadie, but it’s obvious she’s been burned by her daughter more than once. Jimmy quietly tells Nancy the news from CPS. Nancy tells Jimmy that if he wants to give Sadie a real home, now’s his chance. Sadie plays with Nancy's dog after dinner. Nancy can tell there is something else on Jimmy's mind. He admits that he has a crush on Sadie's teacher - who also just happened to moonlight as a dominatrix. Nancy raises an eyebrow, smirks, and says it’s about damn time he fell for someone interesting. Jimmy grumbles about how weird it is, but Nancy shrugs it off. She reminds him that he's been with worse women.
After school one day, Jimmy lingers outside Angela’s classroom as the hallway clears. Sadie is playing nearby with friends. As Angela exits the classroom, she finds Jimmy. Unsure how else to begin, Jimmy asks to talk about Sadie. Angela instantly shifts into attentive teacher mode, but Jimmy waves it off and awkwardly stammers into his real point: this isn’t about Sadie, it’s about her. He wants to take her out. She starts to respond, but he blurts out that he knows about the dominatrix thing. Her expression freezes. Jimmy immediately clarifies that he doesn’t care - he liked her before he found out. As she lightens up, Jimmy keeps rambling. She offers to go out on a date with him if he'll just stop talking. They agree on a night. As they walk out toward the playground to find Sadie.
For his first date with Angela, Jimmy pulls up to the restaurant - an old-school Italian place - a little early. He waits in his truck plucking lint off his shirt. When Angela arrives, he gets out to meet her and makes an offhand joke about how he left the ball gag at home. During dinner, when Jimmy asks about her day job, she talks briefly about her students, then turns it around, asking how he ended up working with dry wall. Jimmy shares a halfway sincere story about getting fired from a bowling alley for "unsanctioned fireworks testing" and somehow landing where he is now. Angela admits that she feels comfortable around Jimmy, and he confesses he hasn't dated much lately as he discovered most women don't find guy with niece and drywall hands all that appealing. She smiles and says maybe she’s not most women. As they leave the restaurant, Jimmy hesitates - unsure whether to go for a kiss, a hug, or a dumb joke. Angela solves the dilemma by gently tugging him down by the shirt collar for a kiss that's short, slightly awkward, but genuinely sweet.
Jimmy stands outside the courthouse with a large manila envelope in his hands - the kind that makes things official. Darren claps him on the back, tells him he’s proud of how far he’s come, and reminds him that CPS rarely recommends full custody to the guy who once called them a bunch of nerd cops with clipboards.
At Jimmy's apartment later that evening, there are signs of change - albeit a little rough around the edges still: Sadie's school art projects taped to the walls, actual groceries in the fridge, and a half-fixed ceiling fan that's at least no longer threatening to fall. Nancy is in the kitchen making chicken and green bean casserole like she's feeding an army. She barks at Jimmy to grab the good plates. With pride, she comments that it's about time her baby pulled his head out of his ass. Jimmy kisses her cheek and tells her that's the nicest thing she's ever said to him. Angela arrives with a bottle of wine. Lenny shows up with a six-pack of beer and a pie he claims to have baked but still has the price sticker from the grocery store. They all settle in around the cramped dining table. Jimmy makes a quick toast. He thanks them for helping him not totally screw this up.
After dinner, the apartment has gone quiet. Dirty dishes still cover the counter, and the flicker of Cops glows faintly on the TV. Jimmy slouches on the couch, half-watching, half-dozing. Angela cozies up on the couch next to him and rests her head on his shoulder. She asks how he can watch garbage like Cops. Jimmy mutters that he enjoys watching the screw-ups - makes him feel like he's not doing that bad in life by comparison. Angela climbs into his lap and kisses him. She then asks if this is more entertaining than some guy getting arrested for huffing paint behind a 7-Eleven. Jimmy kisses her, then sneaks a glance back at the screen mid-makeout. Angela catches it, swats the back of his head playfully, and calls him hopeless. Jimmy then asks she happened to bring over any outfits from her "other job." Angela narrows her eyes, then - without a word - gets up and disappears into the hallway. Jimmy waits, thinking maybe he crossed a line. But then Angela reappears in the doorway wearing a sharp set of leather lingerie. Jimmy’s jaw drops. He stares at her like he’s seeing the holy grail and mutters that he must be dreaming. He is. In reality, Jimmy and Angela are asleep on the couch. The TV is still on - the Cops theme playing faintly in the background. Sadie pads in from her room, rubbing her eyes. She grabs a glass of water, then pauses when she sees Jimmy and Angela curled up on the couch. Sadie drapes a blanket over them, then quietly disappears back to bed.
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