Shut Eye: Five of Cups – Killing Gina (Review)

Shut Eye “Five of Cups” continues to accumulate bodies and this premonition heavy drama keeps Charlie on his toes as he tries to figure out who will die next.  Initially, after the bleeding roses vision and his being buried alive in his car, Charlie sees Nick and believes his son will die.

This episode picks up after last week’s show revealed that Fonzo was to give up his daughter to White Tony; by marrying his son, two of his parlors and Charlie. It also follows Gina and Linda’s fleecing of Nadine using the scopolamine that killed Emma.

The freelance con artist uses the drug on Charlie’s failed mark and she takes the $1.7 million out of her safe deposit box and gives it to Gina, aka Laurie her new assistant.  After a moment or two, Nadine comes floating out of the bank, sans Laurie.

Linda asks about her lover and is told that Gina’s message to her was “no hard feelings.” Charlie’s wife then rushes to the apartment where Gina has already been met by Fonzo. He takes the money and Gina; both are missing  by the time Linda arrives.

Charlie goes to Dr. White again. This time not to stop the visions but to enhance them. He wants more control over what he is seeing.

In the meantime Nick goes to the memorial service at school after seeing Rita about talking to his dead friend. She learns of Nadine from Charlie’s grief stricken son and obviously passes the information on to Fonzo.

Later, Nick is arrested at the impromptu grave site of Emma and wedding negotiations take place at White Tony’s home.  When Charlie believes that Fonzo has Nick, he and Linda barge in and he actually strikes Fonzo who, somewhat unsurprisingly, acts like a douche when asked about the boy.

It may well be this action that prompts Fonzo to kill Gina and bury her under roses in the Haverford’s back garden. As Charlie and Linda talk, after they collect Nick from jail, Charlie finds a handwritten note from their neighbor Gary.

It leads Charlie to the freshly dug plot of roses and he finds Gina’s body as a horrified Linda looks on. This was the what the vision was all about, Gina was apparently buried alive under those roses. The glimpse of Nick was the connection; Charlie’s act of hitting Fonzo caused Gina’s demise.

The body count has been quite high in this Hulu drama about fake psychic and the Roma population that control them. (Also known as Bujo and Gadje – Bujo being the “real deal” and Gadje the non Roma participants.)

So far in this show, one of Eduardo’s men was killed in a vat of boiling donut oil, another was shot by Charlie’s deadly friend and Fonzo’s cousin was burned to death by Eduardo as well. Emma dies after snorting the drug  Gina gave Linda and Nadine comes within a whisker of killing herself.

This episode manages to go a bit darker. “Five of Cups” also shows that Charlie is still having problems deciphering his visions.  Linda is shown to be something of a doubting Thomas regarding her husband’s new “skill” and Nick seems to be all caught up in the psychic chicanery of offer from the Roma clan.

Shut Eye gives us a cast of characters who are flawed, devious and crooked as hell.  Sylvia steals from her own brother, Linda has affairs that Charlie condones and it is only after the “near-death” of Nadine that he  backs off from the big con.

Gina cheerfully steals the $1.7 million from her lover and the only really “honest” character is the gullible Nick who believes the Roma con. The boy has gone to Fonzo for a love potion and to Rita so he can talk to Emma.

It is Charlie’s dilemma that makes him a sympathetic character. His interaction with Dr. White, who really comes across as a mystic believer, makes him more human and someone we can identify with.

There are two episodes left in the first season of Shut Eye. Head on over and check out this dark drama if you have not already.

Cast:

• Jeffrey Donovan  –  Charlie Haverford
• KaDee Strickland  –  Linda Haverford
• Angus Sampson  –  Fonzo 
• Isabella Rossellini  –  Rita
• Emmanuelle Chriqui  –  Gina
• David Zayas  –  Eduardo Bernal
• Mel Harris  –  Nadine Davies
• Leah Gibson  –  Sylvia Haverford
• Susan Misner  –  Dr. Nora White
• Dylan Schmid  –  Nick Haverford