‘Bad Monkey’ Episode 5 Recap: Florida Man (And Woman)

At the midway point for Bad Monkey, we need to take stock of our collection of characters as they drift between the Florida Keys, Miami, and Andros Island in the Bahamas. Because it’s become kinda random, this quippy comedy, and with Nick and Eve Stripling killing or threatening to kill everybody they encounter – without official investigation or any real consequence – it might be difficult to determine who’s still standing, and whether they even matter. Bad Monkey is a fun watch, with a lot of quick wit to cut the portent of all the blood it mixes with sand. But halfway through, whether it’s going anywhere at all is still up for grabs. 

It’s not like this show was gonna kill off Vince Vaughn with a blow from behind. So the opening scene of Episode 5, as Nick Stripling prepares to dump an unconscious Andrew Yancy in the ocean, is more about the equivalency between Nick’s aspirations for a life well hustled with Eve and the realities of what that life looks like. Or as the all-knowing Bad Monkey narrator puts it, “Nick certainly hadn’t imagined himself dragging a six-foot-five lug nut down the longest dock in Big Pine Key with only one arm.” Yancy comes around, of course, and shelters in the yellow monstrosity next door before finding Nick’s phone in the reeds outside. And while the one-armed con man assures his sociopathic wife that their latest killing is a done deal, Yancy visits Rosa with the phone and some breezy banter about their recent dalliance on her morgue’s examination table.

Not only is there no official investigation – the top meteorologist in the Miami media market is shot to death in a parking structure, and nobody cares? – but Yancy’s now the prime suspect in Izzy O’Peele’s murder, since Mendez has it out for him. In a scene that reeks of the Miami-Dade PD detective’s toxicity, Mendez insults Rosa while simultaneously preying on her sexuality, only for Yancy to headbutt him from inside the body bag where he was hiding. “That was not good for my concussion.”

The APB has also crossed Rogelio’s desk in the Keys – “You got that nice coroner caught up in your world of shit, didn’t you?” – but Yancy’s grouchy pal and ex-partner at least deflects Sheriff Sonny Summers’ questions about Yancy’s whereabouts. This leads to a sequence where Rosa introduces her new man to her family. (The food at the Campesino house looks delicious.) Despite the warnings of her mother Ines (Madelin Marchant), Rosa says she does what she wants with who she wants. And that also goes for Yancy’s protestations. “I’ll tell you when I’m done with you,” she says. Rosa grabs his face and they make out in the shadow of Nick’s arm’s grave, which Yancy just robbed for the biometrics. Gotta unlock that phone, you see. The charming interplay between Vaughn and Natalie Martinez as Yancy and Rosa has easily become Bad Monkey’s best feature. 

With Yancy supposedly out of the picture, there’s only one person left who might squeal on the life Eve has imagined for herself. Did we think she would convince Nick to kill Caitlin? Totally yes. And she still might! As our narrator reminds, Nick’s conscience has quieted in the wake of all this murdering. But instead, Eve just tosses out gross taunts. She’s the one fucking Nick, and that’s her win over his daughter. “You might share his DNA, but I swallow it.” Yikes! It’s hard to believe Caitlin will keep her father’s faked death a secret while he and his new wife jet off to the Bahamas and leave the US behind forever, especially with a very alive Yancy still conducting his unauthorized investigation. But that’s the plan these two kinda dumb, currently consequence-free murderers are banking on. After all, we’ve all heard enough “Florida Man” stories to understand why they think it might be possible. With Nick’s phone unlocked, Yancy calls Eve as they’re on the puddle jumper to Andros. “Your husband tried to kill me. I’ll see you soon.” 

And what of our characters on the island? Neville, ever the enterprising local, thought he had the dirt on “Christopher” and the resort development threatening to consume Andros. He pilfered a flash drive from the construction office, complete with evidence of all the bribes and forged deeds Nick Stripling used to secure the oceanfront property. But he loses the drive to Nick’s enforcer Egg (David St. Louis) during a chaotic and fun low-speed chase through the greenery and beach trails of Andros, Neville on his occasional girlfriend’s scooter and Egg in a screaming yellow electric Moke, and we’re back to square one. What might be more important for Neville is the sway means and money have over Devil Queen, aka Gracie. Suddenly she’s not working on his curse so much as she’s listening to Egg’s reasoning about why he’s helping the interlopers Nick and Eve. “Everyone’s out hustling trying to get theirs. You can play the game too, or watch them take it out your pocket.” With the murderers fleeing to the Bahamas and Yancy on the chase, we’re looking forward to what happens when all of these people show up in the same place. 

Florida Keys for Bad Monkey Episode 5:  

• It’s hard to predict where Bonnie’s gonna show up next. Still on the lam while Johnna Russell, Ashley Nicole Black’s state investigator, puts the arm on her deadbeat doctor husband, Bonnie high-tails it back to Yancy’s to lay low when her credit cards get canceled. He’s not home, of course, because he’s busy with Rosa, having sex in morgues and digging up arms from graves. But before she can wonder where her fling is, and wonder how she’ll keep running from her past, the mysterious SUV that tried to splatter Yancy way back in Bad Monkey episode 2 shows up again. And this time we see its driver, who it turns out knows Bonnie intimately. “Hey Ms. Chase – I mean, Plover.” It’s Cody (Alex MacNicoll), the student she slept with back in Oklahoma. And by any name, Bonnie’s in a heap of random trouble.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.