Charlie and Emma may be slowly finding their way back to each other.
The more time Emma spent with the Nicolettis, the more her eyes were opened to the kind of people they were, which was much different from the picture she painted of them after learning Charlie’s secret.
With Emma and Birdie teamed up on The Company You Keep Season 1 Episode 8, Charlie and Leo were left to play out their own con, which was highly personal for the elder Nicoletti.
If you were looking for more Leo in your life, this was the hour for you. The family patriarch has held onto a vendetta for a very long time. And you really can’t blame him.
Leo had a respectable job once upon a time, and he and his co-workers were screwed out of their hard-earned pensions. It’s a loss that Leo never got over, and after hearing some bad news about his health, he decided there was no better time than now to get that money back.
Leo is the OG criminal, and he’s great at jumping into a disguise and making it feel completely natural. He chatted up Davy, and within seconds they were hitting the links together, and Leo was able to put his plan into motion.
One thing I love about the Nicolettis is they have a plethora of talents. They can integrate themselves into any situation and have the skills to make it work. Was Leo a golf hustler in his past life or something?
Only God knows how he hit that shot twice in a row, but it was a stellar con that Leo needed for himself.
Charlie’s and Fran’s reactions to Leo going behind their back were rooted in their fears about the current state of affairs. With them currently entangled with the CIA, they couldn’t afford to get into trouble because there was only so much Emma could do.
Of everyone in the family, Leo was the most upset about Emma, and it felt like it came from an inherent distrust of authorities. As the family’s number one, he surely feels responsible for them, and he doesn’t like the idea of being a snitch, nor does he trust that the agency protects them in the way Emma claims.
He’s been around the block, and I’m sure he’s seen some things.
We got so many beautiful conversations between father and son this hour, and Charlie got a chance to get honest with his dad about how he’s felt his whole life about the life he was born into.
It’s often said that people are a product of their environment, but aren’t we really a product of our genetics? We’re born and molded into the people our parents, or whoever raised us, want us to be. Sure, outside factors then influence us, but at our core, so often are the teachings of the first people in our lives.
Charlie was born to be a con man and was raised to believe it was family over everything and everyone.
That’s not some crazy belief, but it becomes problematic when your entire life revolves around this devotion to family and doesn’t allow you to make any kind of new connections or be vulnerable and open with others.
I understand not blindly trusting anyone, but instilling this idea that you can’t trust anyone doesn’t help your children to make their own decisions and forge their own paths. They’re stuck with what you’ve given them because they’re too afraid to look for something more.
Leo couldn’t wrap his head around why Charlie would endanger the family by agreeing to work for Emma, but in Charlie’s mind, he was doing everything he could to save them. They’ve been in way over their heads with Daphne for a long time, with no idea when they’d get out.
Once you’re in too deep, you have to grab onto the closest buoy, and that buoy was Emma.
Birdie: This is uncomfortable.
Emma: Uncomfortable? Why should this be uncomfortable? Charlie’s job is to win Daphne’s trust, sounds like it’s working.
Birdie: It sounds like she’s feeling a little more for him than trust these days.
Emma: Really, it’s fine. I’m fine.
Birdie: Does your face know that?
Since Emma found out about Charlie, she’s put herself on a high horse, as if the CIA was the end-all and be-all of justice, truth, and everything good about this world. We’ve all heard enough stories to know that there is shadiness and corruption in all aspects of government and life in general.
Emma’s pain stemmed from the hurt she felt about breaking down her walls for a man who wasn’t who he said he was. But spending more time with Charlie and seeing him in his element should clue her into the fact that the man she fell for is the same man.
Charlie will always be the man who loves his family fiercely. He will always be the man who strives to do what’s right in a way that may not look as picturesque as you want it to be.
Emma and Birdie were the team I never knew I needed, and it’s funny that they get along so well, considering their rocky start. Birdie has been the most open to Emma ever since the CIA reveal, mostly because she can see it for what it is; an out for them.
Emma sitting in the van and taking part in a con of her own should have shown her how similar what she and the Nicolettis do was. Emma was literally working on freeing a master drug dealer, yet still found a way to make a slight dig at Charlie when it suited her. Come on now, Emma!
It seemed evident that Charlie trusted Emma, but from her perspective, she didn’t see his admission as that. She has been more focused on the lies leading up to it than the confession itself.
She saw Charlie as dishonest because he couldn’t trust her, not that Charlie told the truth because he trusted her with it.
With each passing hour, you can see the wall between Charlie and Emma lower, and her decision to help Leo may have permanently knocked that sucker down.
Charlie and Leo’s plan to rob ol’ Davy was their version of righting a wrong, giving back to the people who Davy robbed of what was theirs.
If you want to get into the morality of it, you can, but even Emma could see, in that instance, that Leo didn’t deserve to go down for that.
Now you have to wonder where Charlie and Emma go from here, and if they did decide to give it the old college try again, what a relationship between them would look like. Nothing will happen before they sort through this Maguire mess, but will they be willing to try again after that?
Daphne doesn’t get the Maguire mess yet, and it’s sad to see.
Daphne is a great bad lady, and they’ve taken what could have been a very one-dimensional villain and turned her into someone intriguing. She has worked her butt off to prove to her father that she’s capable of running the Maguire empire, and with every setback she’s faced, she came back stronger than ever.
Connor: I don’t know how I’m supposed to run this company if you’re keeping things from me.
Patrick: She’s no Maguire. She’s only here as long as it’s useful.
As was discussed during The Company You Keep Season 1 Episode 7, Maguire presented Daphne with an opportunity, and she decided to take it. But what’s infuriating now is that it’s so crystal clear that nothing she does will ever be good enough.
She doesn’t have the relationship Connor has with his father, and she never will. Even if Maguire was lying to Connor and intended to make Daphne the head of the family, the fact that he never fought for her should tell her all she needs to know.
And does she genuinely believe he will let a woman, a black woman at that, sit atop the throne of his criminal kingdom?
Did anyone miss Connor? That man waltzed into her house and drank her wine like he belonged in the space she had acquired for herself. I was surprised he didn’t plop his shoes up on the table to truly assert his importance and drive home the point that he would never respect her.
If Daphne tells those two anything and clues them into what she’s been doing in any way other than superficially, then she deserves what she gets.
Daphne should break out on her own and start her own thing because she should have built enough capital where the Maguire name isn’t necessary to get what she wants.
If Charlie was a nasty dude interested in pushing drugs and guns, they could own that city. Maguire who?
But alas, Daphne seems hellbent on proving something to her father. And that desire will ultimately cost her if she doesn’t wake up to what’s happening around her.
The Notes I Kept
- There is so much hypocrisy on this show, and I love it — a crooked judge who only takes bribes from criminals who don’t present themselves as criminals was amazing.
- Emma killed her little undercover role. When she said she learned from the best and then walked in with all the confidence Daphne possesses on the daily, I giggled.
- They may not be going there with Charlie and Daphne anymore, but they still have chemistry. And Emma can tell even when she’s just listening to their conversations.
- Shelby was back and played her part at the construction site to perfection.
- I love the Hills, but that storyline is disjointed. They need to spend more time with them to make it enjoyable. David started dating Jennifer off-screen, and now she’s willing to give up her job for him, and it’s difficult to care too much when we aren’t invested in a couple we don’t see.
- I will eat my words if they can bring the political stuff in with the Nicoletti stuff in a way that sets us up for a potential season two.
There are somehow only two episodes left in The Company You Keep Season 1, which is insane! I swear the season just started, and we were screaming about those hotel scenes just yesterday.
With the season winding down, I anticipate we’ll be getting into the big plan to bring Maguire down, and I’m nervous about it! There is so much at stake, and I’m wondering if we may leave this season down a character we’ve grown to know.
Let me know how you feel in the comments and your predictions for the season’s end!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.